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Bruce Springsteen, Steven Spielberg Join Stephen Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’ Week

Stephen Colbert’s "The Late Show" will host Bruce Springsteen and Steven Spielberg during its final week after the host announced the show's cancellation last summer, stunning the industry after 33 years on air.

·May 17, 2026·via NME
Bruce Springsteen, Steven Spielberg Join Stephen Colbert’s Final ‘Late Show’ Week

Bruce Springsteen  and  Steven Spielberg  will be among the guests on the final week of  The Late Show with Stephen Colbert .

In July last year,  Colbert  shocked the TV industry by  announcing on air that  The Late Show had been cancelled by its network CBS . The comedian and satirist has hosted the show since 2015, when he took over from David Letterman, who had been at the helm for 22 years before him.

CBS has chosen to retire the  Late Show  franchise entirely, describing the move as “purely a financial decision”, although it has been widely speculated that the cancellation might be politically motivated, due to Colbert’s pattern of openly criticising the  Donald Trump administration.

Just four episodes of  The Late Show  remain, and the guests have been announced. On Monday (May 18), there will be an episode dubbed ‘The Worst of The Late Show’, which has been labelled as “not a clip show!”, while on Tuesday, Colbert will interview his mentor and fellow  Daily Show  alum  Jon Stewart , as well as Hollywood legend Spielberg.

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Tuesday’s episode will also feature a special musical performance from  David Byrne , while on Wednesday he will interview Springsteen, and take his own long-running ‘Colbert Questionert’, with special guests. The final episode will air on Thursday (May 21), although no specific details have been shared.

After the show’s cancellation was announced, Trump wrote : “I absolutely love that Colbert got fired. His talent was even less than his ratings. I hear Jimmy Kimmel is next. Has even less talent than Colbert!”

The host hit back at the President on his next show , feigning outrage and saying: “How dare you, sir? Would an untalented man be able to compose the following satirical witticism?”. He then turned to a camera marked “Eloquence Cam” and said in a New York accent: “Go fuck yourself”.

Colbert has not just been outspoken about Trump, but also previously criticised CBS’ parent company Paramount for settling a lawsuit with Trump for $16million (£12million) over his claims that  CBS News  deceptively edited an interview with his 2024 election rival  Kamala Harris.

The cancellation has stoked fears in the TV industry about the future of late-night shows, with  Conan O’Brien using a speech last summer to predict that it might “disappear” , as “the life we’ve all known for almost 80 years is undergoing seismic change”.

Colbert, meanwhile,  has been announced as a writer on a new Lord Of The Rings sequel , subtitled Shadows Of The Past . He is a well-known Tolkien expert and had a cameo in  The Hobbit  films.

The post Bruce Springsteen and Steven Spielberg among guests for Stephen Colbert’s final week on ‘The Late Show’ appeared first on NME .

_Originally reported by [NME](https://www.nme.com/news/tv/bruce-springsteen-and-steven-spielberg-among-guests-for-stephen-colberts-final-week-on-the-late-show-3945822?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bruce-springsteen-and-steven-spielberg-among-guests-for-stephen-colberts-final-week-on-the-late-show)._

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This story is summarized from coverage by NME.

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