After years of political satire, celebrity interviews and unforgettable monologues, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is officially coming to an end tonight. But this is not simply the final episode of Stephen Colbert’s run behind the desk. The finale also marks the closing chapter of one of television’s most recognizable late-night franchises, which first began in 1993 with David Letterman.
For longtime viewers, the farewell broadcast represents the end of an era that helped define late-night television for more than three decades.
