New York (AFP) - “The Late Show” frontman Stephen Colbert will host the final edition of the 33-year-old US cultural institution on Thursday night, after it was cancelled by CBS as the network courts President Donald Trump.

The show, which Colbert has hosted since 2015, was axed after he mocked the broadcaster for a $16 million settlement with Trump for allegedly “maliciously” editing an interview with his Democratic election rival Kamala Harris.

Colbert called it a “big fat bribe.”

CBS has insisted the decision to cancel “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” the ratings leader in the time slot, was purely financial – and that it was a coincidence the move came as CBS parent company Paramount lobbied for government approval of its $8.4 billion merger with Skydance Media.

Around that time CBS brought in Bari Weiss, a right-wing journalist without significant TV experience, to run its news division.

In the weeks leading to Thursday’s curtain call, 62-year-old Colbert has at times cut a subdued figure, lacking some of his usual cheerful flair.

“I can finally speak unvarnished truth to power and say what I really think about Donald Trump starting right now,” he told People.

“I don’t have any fear of the administration doing anything to me. I mean, how silly would it be?”

The identity of the final night’s guests remained a closely held secret early Thursday.

Defying the rain to line up outside the show’s Broadway home, ticketholder Koenraad Smits, 31, said “it’s just a better way to consume the news nowadays.”

“It’s usually a little bit more uplifting than the regular news – with a dash of truthiness, and just like a dash of comedy in there, just to make it all just more digestible,” said the chef who wore a “Late Show” T-shirt.

Colbert coined the word “truthiness” – belief based on gut feeling – in 2005, going on to be declared word of the year.

On the penultimate night, rock legend Bruce Springsteen joined the “Late Show” to sing his “Streets of Minneapolis” anti-Trump protest song and to attack the Republican leader.

“You’re the first guy in America who’s lost his show because we’ve got a president who can’t take a joke,” Springsteen told Colbert.

And Colbert was clearly moved when he was joined in his studio by fellow late night hosts Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver, who paid tribute in the final days.

Kimmel was briefly taken off the air in September 2025 by his network ABC after complaints about a remark he made over the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.

- Targeted by Trump -

Trump has repeatedly attacked media and press freedom since returning to office, using lawsuits and regulatory threats to retaliate for unflattering news coverage and jokes.

The president has long been a fierce critic of late-night talk show hosts and their jabs at him. Trump has called Colbert a “pathetic trainwreck” who should be “put to sleep.”

One late night host bidding a less fond farewell was Greg Gutfeld of right-wing Fox News.

Asked in November about both the cancellation and Kimmel’s suspension, Gutfeld said, “Why did it take so long?”

Colbert made his name playing a fictitious version of himself, embodying the type of conservative blowhard beloved by Fox News viewers – and derided by the left.

He first played the sharp-suited but dim-witted character on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” before getting a spin-off, “The Colbert Report.”

Colbert ascended to the pinnacle of US late-night TV when he was named host of the CBS flagship, shedding the character and employing his own voice.

Colbert has been coy about his next steps but announced he will be a writer on a forthcoming “Lord of the Rings” movie.

One guest has eluded Colbert: the pope. The host, a devout Catholic, has called the pontiff his “white whale.”

Rival late-night hosts were all due to air re-runs Thursday out of respect for Colbert’s swansong, which has an afterparty themed “Fired and festive!”