Stephen Colbert’s Last ‘Late Show’ Features Famous Friends and Paul McCartney

McCartney gave Colbert a framed, signed photo of The Beatles playing on the same stage for the first time in 1964.

“Wow,” Colbert said, then, pretending to read aloud: “To Stephen, you’re better than The Beatles, Paul McCartney.”

As the episode neared its end, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jon Stewart and Andy Cohen showed up to help Colbert through a wormhole portal that opened up to swallow his show, followed by his “Strike Force Five” co-hosts — “Jimmy, Seth, John, Handsome Jimmy!” Colbert called them — who came by to see him off.

“Without you, where will Americans turn to see a middle-aged white man make jokes about the news?” — SETH MEYERS

“But why aren’t you guys being pulled in, too?” Colbert asked.

“Actually, one of these holes opened at my show last year, but it went away after about three days.” — JIMMY KIMMEL, referring to ABC’s pulling “Jimmy Kimmel Live” off air the briefly after Kimmel made comments about Charlie Kirk

“At some point, this may come for all of our shows. But, Stephen, what’s important to remember is tonight it is going to eat you.” — JOHN OLIVER

The wormhole sucked Colbert up then spat him out into a jam session on one of his favorite songs, Elvis Costello’s “Jump Up.” Colbert sang alongside Jon Batiste, Cato the bandleader, and Costello himself, who all joined McCartney back onstage for one big performance of The Beatles’ “Hello, Goodbye” as staffers and friends took the stage.

In the final moments, Colbert gave McCartney the nod to cut the power from the control room. Once done, the wormhole turned the Ed Sullivan Theater into a miniature version of itself inside a musical snow globe playing the show’s theme song while being sniffed by one last celebrity, Colbert’s Boykin Spaniel, Benny.