Stephen Colbert ends 'Late Show' with risky copyright music joke: 'Hope this doesn’t cost CBS money'

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Stephen Colbert wrapped up his 11-year run on 'The Late Show' with a final episode airing on Thursday, May 21. He made sure the goodbye wasn’t just emotional, but also a little chaotic in the best way.

In his last ever episode, Colbert leaned into a running joke about risk and copyright. He got his band to play copyrighted music on air, almost as if daring the universe to respond. Then he delivered the punchline, "Oh no, I hope this doesn't cost CBS any money."

The joke was also a clear hint at CBS, which said in July 2025 that the show was ending. The network called it “purely a financial decision.”

Stephen Colbert ends 'The Late Show' with a copyright chaos joke

On May 21, Stephen Colbert said goodbye to his beloved show. The final episode was full of celebrity guests, a last interview with Paul McCartney, and the usual funny "Meanwhile" segment.

In that segment, Colbert talked about a news story involving the makers of 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' and other 'Peanuts' shows. They had filed lawsuits against people using the famous song "Linus and Lucy" without permission. 

Colbert made it sound serious, then joked, "Now Peanuts is a powerful brand and corporation in and of itself, anyone illegally using that music is going to have to pay through the nose, Lewis," while talking to his band leader, Louis Cato. Then things got funny in a very risky way.

Right after that, the band started playing the same Peanuts music he just talked about. Colbert looked surprised and said, “Excuse me, Lewis, is the band, is the band right now playing the same Peanuts music that I just said people are being sued for, for using without permission? Is that what you're doing?” Louis Cato simply replied, “Yeah, yeah.” To finish it off, Colbert added, "Oh no, I hope this doesn't cost CBS any money." 

Stephen Colbert says leaving ‘The Late Show’ will give him time to think

Speaking to PEOPLE, Stephen Colbert opened up about what life might look like after 'The Late Show' ends. He said stepping away will finally give him space to slow down and figure out what he wants next.

“And now I’ll be stepping down with enough time, enough energy to do other things that I want to do,” he said. Colbert added that he is only just starting to think about life after late-night.

He also admitted the job has taken up almost all his focus. “There’s so much to think about to do the show,” he explained. “So I don’t have much better of an answer than most college seniors do, which is I’ve got to finish this first, because it takes almost the entirety of my brain to do this show. So we’ll land this plane, and we’ll check out the view from there.”