Maya Georgi
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'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' during Thursday’s May 21, 2026 show. Scott Kowalchyk /CBS The ratings are in, and it’s official: The Late Show With Stephen Colbert went out with a bang. A record-setting 6.74 million people tuned in to the watch the finale on Thursday night, according to reports of preliminary data from Nielsen. The feat marks the show’s most-watched weeknight episode of all time.
Those historic ratings highlight a noteworthy spike from the show’s first quarter of 2026 average, which came in at 2.69 million viewers, as Variety reports. It’s also just above the The Late Show’s premiere back in 2015, which averaged 6.55 million viewers.
The historic viewing numbers come less than a year after CBS made the decision to end its late-night talk show, which Colbert had hosted for more than a decade. In August 2025, the network cited financial reasons for the perplexing move, but there continues to be speculation over the network’s true motives. CBS’ parent company, Paramount, was seeking to complete a merger with Skydance Media that needed government approval at the time. Additionally, just days before the news of the cancellation, Colbert called out Paramount for its $16 million settlement with Trump, a deal that the comedian-host dubbed “a big, fat bribe.”
