Jimmy Kimmel Steps Aside So Stephen Colbert Can Take His Final Bow
TL;DR: Jimmy Kimmel will air a rerun of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on May 21, 2026, the night Stephen Colbert tapes his final episode of "The Late Show" on CBS — a deliberate, friendship-driven gesture that echoes what Kimmel did for David Letterman in 2015. Colbert's 11-season run ends definitively that night, with no successor host planned for the 11:35 p.m. slot. If you want to watch the finale live, it's on CBS — and Movie OTT is tracking streaming availability across regions as details firm up.
On a Monday morning in mid-May 2026, with less than two weeks left before late night television loses one of its sharpest voices, Jimmy Kimmel quietly made a decision that said more than most farewell speeches could. ABC confirmed that Kimmel's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" will air a rerun on Thursday, May 21 — the exact night Stephen Colbert signs off from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" after 11 seasons on CBS. No competition. No counterprogramming. Just a clear lane for his friend to leave the way he deserves. New episodes of Kimmel's show will run Monday through Wednesday that same week, so it isn't an extended hiatus. It's a single, pointed gesture — one that Kimmel has made exactly once before, under eerily similar circumstances.
What Kimmel Is Actually Doing, and Why It Matters
The mechanics are simple. ABC confirmed that Kimmel's May 21 timeslot will carry a repeat broadcast, leaving the night's late-night conversation entirely to Colbert's CBS farewell. According to Variety, Kimmel is doing this "out of deference to Colbert's sendoff" — the phrasing reported by industry news site LateNighter, which first flagged the scheduling move.
Here's what makes this notable beyond the logistics:
- May 21, 2026 is the confirmed final broadcast date for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"
- Colbert's run as host spans 11 seasons, beginning in September 2015 when he succeeded David Letterman
- The 11:35 p.m. CBS slot will go dark after the finale — no replacement host, no reformatted version planned
- Kimmel's rerun decision mirrors his May 2015 move, when he stood down on the night of Letterman's own farewell from the same show
That 2015 parallel is the detail that doesn't get enough attention. This isn't a one-off impulse. Kimmel has now done this twice — for the two most significant late-night exits in CBS history. That's a tradition. A quiet, professional code.
The Farewell Week Colbert Has Assembled
What's striking is the caliber of what CBS has lined up for Colbert's final stretch. On Monday, May 11, Kimmel himself appears as a guest alongside NBC's Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, and HBO's John Oliver — reassembling the full lineup from "Strike Force Five," the podcast the five hosts launched during the concurrent Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA strikes of 2023. That podcast, which ran to support crew members going without pay during the work stoppage, was one of the genuinely warm stories to come out of a brutal industry period.
Then on Thursday, May 14, David Letterman — the man Colbert replaced — is scheduled to appear. That booking alone carries enormous symbolic weight.
Other confirmed guests for the final run include John Krasinski, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Pedro Pascal, and Tom Hanks. Special segments include a "Colbert Questionert" answered by Barack Obama, a Broadway performance featuring Ben Platt, Bernadette Peters, Annaleigh Ashford, Christopher Jackson, and Patrick Wilson, and a live set from The Strokes. Not bad for a show that CBS claimed it was canceling purely for financial reasons.
The Cancellation That Nobody Fully Believes Was Just About Money
The word "financial" is doing a lot of work here. CBS announced the cancellation of "The Late Show" in July 2025, framing it as a budget decision. Many in the industry — and outside it — pushed back immediately. The timing was conspicuous: parent company Paramount Global was, at that moment, seeking FCC approval for its sale to Skydance Media, a deal that required goodwill from the Trump administration. Colbert has been one of the most consistent and pointed critics of Donald Trump in late night television. Trump, for his part, has publicly celebrated the show's cancellation more than once.
Letterman has been the most vocal in naming what he sees as the real reason. In an interview with the New York Times last week, he called CBS executives "lying weasels" — and he wasn't subtle about it: "He was dumped because the people selling the network to Skydance said, 'Oh no, there's not going to be any trouble with that guy. We're going to take care of the show. We're just going to throw that into the deal. When will the ink on the check dry?' I'm just going to go on record as saying: They're lying. Let me just add one other thing, Jason. They're lying weasels."
Hard to say if that framing will be fully vindicated by history. But Letterman's willingness to say it publicly, loudly, and on the record — at 78 years old, with nothing left to protect — gives it a different weight than the usual industry grumbling.
How This Story Reads for Viewers Outside the US
For audiences in India, the UK, and Spain, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" has never had a straightforward broadcast home — it's a CBS property in a world where CBS doesn't have a traditional international footprint. Clips have circulated widely on YouTube, and that's been the primary way international viewers have engaged with Colbert's monologues, interviews, and political commentary over the past decade.
As of now, there's no confirmed global streaming home for the finale or for archival episodes. Movie OTT's where-to-watch tracker is monitoring availability across Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, SonyLIV, and other platforms for any region-specific licensing that emerges ahead of or following the May 21 broadcast. Indian audiences who've followed Colbert's Trump-era commentary — which has circulated extensively on social media — will want to keep an eye on YouTube's official Late Show channel, which has historically posted full segments within hours of broadcast.
For UK viewers, Paramount+ (which carries CBS content in Britain) is the most likely home for any streaming window, though nothing has been confirmed. Spanish audiences are in a similar holding pattern. The honest answer is: watch the Late Show's official YouTube channel on May 21 if you're outside the US. That's the most reliable path right now.
What David Letterman Said, and Why It Lands Differently Coming From Him
Letterman's "lying weasels" quote has understandably dominated coverage this week — but the context matters. After hosting "Late Night" on NBC from 1982 to 1993, Letterman moved to CBS and ran "The Late Show" until his retirement in May 2015, when he handed the desk to Colbert. That's over three decades of institutional loyalty to a network that he now believes betrayed his successor for political convenience.
Variety reported that Letterman's appearance as Colbert's guest on May 14 will be one of the most anticipated bookings of the entire farewell run. It's worth noting — Letterman rarely does television anymore. That he's coming back specifically for this says something.
For reference on how Colbert and Kimmel's friendship has played out publicly over the past year, Stephen Colbert Revealed The Late Show Final Show Date offers useful context on how Colbert himself framed the ending when he went public with the May 21 date.
Colbert's Eleven Years: A Quick Accounting
Before "The Late Show," Colbert spent nine years on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" (2005–2014), a character-driven political satire that won him multiple Emmy Awards and a Peabody. He brought a different energy to the CBS desk — less character-based, more openly himself — and the show found its footing as a sharp, politically engaged alternative to NBC's Tonight Show.
His 11 seasons produced some genuinely memorable television. The "Colbert Questionert," which Barack Obama apparently agreed to answer for the finale, became one of the show's signature recurring bits. The Strike Force Five podcast — referenced above — showed a side of Colbert as a genuine industry organizer, not just a performer. And his monologues during the Trump years drew audiences who wanted late night to actually engage with what was happening in Washington.
Movie OTT has covered Colbert's streaming footprint across regions throughout his tenure, and the finale represents the end of one of the more consistent late-night presences of the past decade.
What Happens After May 21
CBS has not announced a replacement for the 11:35 p.m. slot. That's the blunt reality. The desk goes dark, and the network hasn't signaled what — if anything — fills it. Whether a competitor picks up the format, whether Colbert lands somewhere in streaming, or whether this is genuinely the end of his late-night chapter is unknown as of this writing.
What is known: Kimmel will be back on Friday, May 22, with new episodes. The gesture ends when it ends. And if you want to watch the Colbert finale when it airs — May 21, 2026, 11:35 p.m. ET on CBS — that's your window. For streaming availability updates across India, the US, the UK, and Spain, Movie OTT will have the current picture as licensing details develop.
