Stephen Colbert breaks comedy and variety talk continuity on The Late Show’s depressing sci-fi finale

Ed Sullivan. Samantha Bee. Arsenio Hall. Johnny Carson. Chelsea Handler. Trevor Noah. Jay Leno. Joan Rivers. Robin Sede. Dick Cavett. Jack Pearl. Steve Allen.

Stephen Colbert’s final episode of “Late Show” began with an introduction that combined clips of past and present American television late night and variety show hosts dating back a quarter century.

In the series finale of CBS’ Late Show series (RIP: 1993-2026), Stephen Colbert humbly positioned himself as just another host on what he called a “comedy-variety-talk continuum.”

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Colbert promised viewers regular Thursday episodes filled with joy to end things, but the dominant sentiment of his ending show was melancholy, and the style slowly drifted into science fiction.

Although President Donald Trump was not mentioned by name, the authoritarian pressure he exerted on CBS to cancel Colbert’s appearance affected the proceedings. (The network maintains that Late Show’s death was a purely financial decision.)

Colbert, 62, who previously hosted Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” from 2005 to 2014, recalled that on the show’s first episode, his conservative alter ego said, “Anyone can read you the news. I promise you’ll feel the news.”

Colbert said his job on The Late Show was different, but he quickly realized it. “We came here to feel the news with you guys. And I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly felt it.”

For the first half of the show, Colbert followed a familiar structure – topical monologues, desk tidbits, and a multi-part interview with surprise final guest Paul McCartney.

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The 83-year-old singer-songwriter’s first band, The Beatles, made their American debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964 in the very studio that has been home to The Late Show since 1993.

“All the music we loved came from America,” McCartney said of his first visit to America.

“The land of the free, the greatest democracy. That’s what it used to be, and hopefully it still is.”

Now, any pretense that The Late Show was just a standard episode is over. Colbert wandered backstage under the guise of a technical problem and (in a pre-recorded segment) discovered a green-glowing wormhole.

Popular scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson apparently explained that the cause was a rift in the “continuity of comedy and variety show talk” caused by CBS canceling “The Late Show,” despite its No. 1 ratings.

Then Colbert’s mentor, The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, seemed to dig that hole even deeper as the latest dark matter metaphor Colbert must choose to face with a laugh.

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Then HBO satirist John Oliver showed up to investigate the hole, along with Colbert’s fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and Seth Meyers. “At some point, this may happen to all of our shows,” Oliver said.

Shortly after, Colbert is sucked into a wormhole and finds himself singing the song “Jump Up” by Elvis Costello in a void-like theater illuminated by ghostly lights. Costello was there, as were Jon Batiste and Louis Cato, former and present leaders of Colbert’s band.

Jump up and hold on tight

I can’t trust promises or guarantees.

Because then you come around the bend and this guy says he’s never heard of you or me.

Back at the Ed Sullivan Theater, McCartney and Colbert sang “Hello, Goodbye” with the Late Show staff and crew, creating a fun flash mob.

But then there was more pre-recorded work. McCartney turned off a huge switch. The Ed Sullivan Theater was sucked into the sky. It fell to earth and was enveloped in a snow globe. Colbert’s dog, Benny, smelled it.

This was a lot of endings. But to be fair, it’s hard to say goodbye. Colbert had to say goodbye for another eight months.

President Trump’s late-night war is disturbingly anti-democratic, but it also lends even more relevance to the aging population.

Last May, streaming TV viewership in the U.S. surpassed what is now called linear television (broadcast and cable combined) for the first time, according to viewership research firm Nielsen.

In this on-demand environment, the concept of “late night programming” is becoming an anachronism.

It would be surprising if a daily show like “The Late Show” is still on another American network in another 10 years.

They weren’t always there. Just before David Letterman’s Late Show debuted in 1993, CBS’ 11:35 p.m. ET slot was filled with Crime Time After Primetime, which aired low-cost Canadian imports such as Forever Night and Fly by Night.

Now, the CBS affiliate in the US will fill that space with an off-topic comedy panel show called Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen.

Global TV, which has broadcast Colbert in Canada for 11 years, will rebroadcast its original true crime series “Crime Beat” Monday through Friday.

Meanwhile, the Ed Sullivan Theater hasn’t disappeared into a snow globe.

The 99-year-old landmark building at 1697 Broadway in Manhattan was first built as a live theater, then a music hall and sound stage for CBS Radio, and after 1948 was used primarily for television.

Some wonder if it will become a Broadway theater again.

As Colbert seems to have wanted to convey on the air, he was only briefly on stage stepping on not only Letterman and the Beatles before him, but also Cary Grant, Jackie Gleason, Nichols and May, Kate and Ally…

The arc of the American entertainment world is long. It is unclear where it is bent.