‘He had a unique ability to be human’: late-night TV says goodbye to Stephen Colbert

What happened

According to The Guardian’s source item, ‘He had a unique ability to be human’: late-night TV says goodbye to Stephen Colbert, The Late Show, and its much-loved host, will bid farewell this week after a controversial cancellation leaving behind a challenging TV landscape Hugh Jackman sang a parody of Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline. Bette Midler performed a satirical rewrite of Wind Beneath My Wings. John Lithgow wrote and recited a poem entitled The Mighty Colbert. Jake Tapper hand-delivered a painting of Colbert as Gollum from The Lord of the Rings. And Jimmy Fallon offered a pointed take on Frank Sinatra’s My Way: “And now the end is near / And so you face the final curtain / But Trump, he made it clear / He wants you gone / Of that we’re certain.” A roll call of celebrities have made pilgrimage to the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York in recent months to join a long goodbye to CBS’s The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, honouring a voice that will be sorely missed from the national conversation when the lights go

Context

The development sits in VINI’s Global file for readers following international affairs, institutions, conflict, diplomacy, economics, and cross-border consequences. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-05-20T09:00:32+00:00.

What to watch

Open questions include whether primary sources issue follow-up statements, whether local or market impacts become clearer, and whether additional reporting changes the timeline or adds material context.

Source

Primary source: ‘He had a unique ability to be human’: late-night TV says goodbye to Stephen Colbert via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.