The cameras stopped rolling. The broadcast ended. And then the real final moment of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show happened, completely off air, in front of an audience of staff members, family, and celebrity guests who were not expecting what came next.
Audience shot video surfaced online showing what happened in the Ed Sullivan Theater after the finale officially concluded. Jon Batiste, Colbert’s longtime bandleader and one of the most genuinely gifted musicians in late night television history, gathered everyone still in the building and led the room in a performance of When the Saints Go Marching In. Paul McCartney, who had performed during the broadcast itself, picked up a trumpet and joined in.
Paul McCartney. On trumpet. Playing When the Saints Go Marching In. In the Ed Sullivan Theater. After the final Late Show. With the band, the staff, and the families all gathered together.
None of it was planned as a broadcast moment. None of it aired. It happened because that is what the night called for and because the people in that room understood they were living through something they would remember for the rest of their lives.
After the performance ended, Colbert took the microphone and spoke to the room. He delivered what witnesses described as one of the most emotional speeches of the entire evening. He also joked, with characteristic honesty, that only about 50 percent of what he had said about CBS on air during his final weeks was actually true. The room reportedly responded to that line exactly the way you would expect a room full of people who had spent eleven years working alongside Colbert to respond.
The video spread rapidly once it surfaced online, reaching millions of people who had already watched the broadcast and thought they had seen everything the finale had to offer. The reaction was consistent: people could not believe something this extraordinary had happened without cameras capturing it for the official broadcast.
Sometimes the best moments are the ones that were never meant to be seen. This was one of those moments, and the fact that a shaky audience recording is the only document of it makes it feel even more precious.
