Stephen Colbert Admits 'Gutfeld!' Trounces Him in the Ratings During Farewell Show Sketch

Former CBS talk show host Stephen Colbert winkingly confessed during his show’s final episode that its oft-touted status as “#1 in late-night” comes with a massive asterisk.

The series finale of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert aired Thursday night, and in a pre-recorded skit, Colbert symbolized the end of his network TV tenure by facing down a green CGI wormhole backstage. To explain the metaphor, pop-science author Neil DeGrasse Tyson appears and says his cancellation has torn apart “the fabric of the universe.”

The joke continues:

DeGrasse Tyson: Two contradictory realities cannot coexist without rupturing the space-time continuum. Colbert: Like what? Tyson: For instance, if the show is #1 on late night and it also gets canceled. Colbert: They canceled Gutfeld?!

To concede this fact suggests it really did stick in Colbert’s craw. After the announcement of his cancellation — and the ignominious end of a decades-long cultural institution — Colbert’s defenders frequently touted his show as the top-rated late night talk show, only to be corrected by a quick scan of Nielsen data.

In reality, Colbert was getting his clock cleaned by Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld, going back to 2021. While they’re not going head to head in the same timeslot, Gutfeld! was pulling over a million more overall viewers than The Late Show, even during its farewell tour, and over 100,000 more in the coveted 18-49 demo.

The cool kid’s club of late-night hosts are clearly salty about their battle for second place. Jon Stewart, a longtime confrere of Colbert’s, whined last year that the reason Gutfeld is so popular is because he’s — get this — too partisan.

The skit continues with Tyson saying, “Your cancellation has created a rift in the comedy-variety-talk continuum, and if it grows, all of late-night television could be destroyed.” Other former late-night hosts have conceded this grim reality.

The Daily Show‘s Stewart then appears for a meaningless goodbye, telling Colbert “I love you” with a mouthful of mug water pouring down his face, for no reason except to fend off sincerity. Late-night hosts from other networks (Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver) also appear — bringing zero gravity to the sendoff, as they were all just there 10 days ago.

After an obligatory string of tepid jokes, the “Strike Force Five” rebuke the wormhole and make it disappear. “You get out of here, hole!” Kimmel shouts. “For the next 12 minutes, Colbert is the only one in this theater who’s gonna suck!”

The episode’s final moment calls back to the wormhole skit, with Colbert flipping a switch to turn off the lights to the Ed Sullivan Theater. The green light reappears and sucks up the entire building, turning it into a snow globe playing the Late Show theme song from a music box — a pointless nod to the controversial ending of St. Elsewhere. Colbert walks his dog Benny past the snow globe on the sidewalk, signaling he’s ready to move on to other endeavors, like ruining Tolkien. Farewell, Stephen!