Stephen Colbert tells audience his job was to 'feel the news with you' as 'Late Show' airs last episode

Left-wing talk show host Stephen Colbert got dressed up for his last "The Late Show" audience on Thursday night to deliver his final show. He told the audience that his job was to "feel the news" with them.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the final show, saying "Stephen Colbert’s firing from CBS was the 'Beginning of the End' for untalented, nasty, highly overpaid, not funny, and very poorly rated Late Night Television Hosts. Others, of even less talent, to soon follow. May they all Rest in Peace! President DONALD J. TRUMP"

Colbert was a ready critic of Trump and Trump had no love for the late night host. Reporting from the Media Research Center reveals that Colbert leaned almost 100% toward guests that were leftist and had almost no conservative guests on his show.

He referred to the show as the "Joy Machine" which churned out more than 1,800 episodes over 11 years. His job, he said, was to "feel the news" with the audience.

"We call it the Joy Machine, because to do this many shows, it has to be a machine. But the thing is, if you choose to do with joy, it doesn't hurt as much when your fingers get caught in the gears, and I cannot adequately explain to you what the people who work here have done for each other and how much we mean to each other," Colbert said.

"On night one of the Colbert Report, back in the day, I said, anyone can read the news to you. I promised to feel the news at you, and I realized pretty soon in this job that our job over here was different. We were here to feel the news with you, and I don't know about you, but I sure have felt it. And I just want to let all y'all know, in here and out there, how important you've been to what we have done," he added.

He then praised the audience for bringing the "energy" needed for the show. The final episode marks its end as CBS last year announced plans to end the late-night talk show, which Colbert has hosted for over the past decade.

Colbert was roundly slammed during Covid for backing government restrictions and going as far as to dance around with people in hypodermic needle costumes to encourage Americans to take the rapidly developed mRNA shot intended to reduce Covid risk.

Both Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon vowed to go dark in honor of Colbert's last show and to steer late night audiences to the CBS broadcast. Kimmel said people should tune into the last show and then boycott CBS in perpetuity.

Taking over Colbert's late-night slot will be Byron Allen’s comedy talk show, Comics Unleashed. Allen's show will run through the 2026 to 2027 TV season. The announcement for Colbert's show to end came in July last year.