Stephen Colbert is co-writing a Lord of the Rings film after CBS retired The Late Show. The final episode aired on 21 May 2026, closing a run of nearly eleven years. Warner Bros. announced his Middle-earth screenplay on 24 March 2026, two months before the show ended.
What Is Stephen Colbert Doing Now?
He is writing a feature film set in Middle-earth, his first major project outside television.
Warner Bros. announced the film on 24 March 2026, timed to Tolkien Reading Day, under the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past. Colbert is writing it with Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote Peter Jackson’s original trilogy, and with his own son, the screenwriter Peter McGee.
The script covers material the 2001 film skipped. It adapts chapters three to eight of The Fellowship of the Ring, from “Three Is Company” to “Fog on the Barrow-Downs”, which Jackson’s adaptation largely left out. Colbert described them as the chapters “that ya’ll never developed into the first movie”.
The announced premise is set after the events of the trilogy: fourteen years after Frodo’s passing, Sam, Merry and Pippin retrace their original journey while Sam’s daughter Elanor uncovers why the War of the Ring nearly failed.
The film remains in development. Warner Bros. has not announced a release date or a production start, and it is positioned to arrive after Andy Serkis’s The Lord of the Rings: The Hunt for Gollum, which is dated for 17 December 2027.
Why Was The Late Show Cancelled?
CBS said the decision was financial and retired the franchise rather than replace him.
The network announced on 17 July 2025 that the show would end in May 2026. CBS called it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night”, said it was unrelated to the show’s performance or content, described Colbert as irreplaceable, and confirmed it would not appoint a successor host. The Late Show brand had run on CBS since 1993 under David Letterman.
The reported losses have never been independently confirmed. A figure of more than $40 million a year, first published by the trade newsletter Puck in July 2025, was widely repeated but rests on anonymous sources. Colbert himself put the number lower, saying he could see the show losing about $24 million, and Jimmy Kimmel publicly dismissed the larger figure.
The timing drew scrutiny because the announcement came days after Colbert criticised Paramount’s $16 million settlement of a lawsuit brought by Donald Trump over a 60 Minutes interview, which Colbert had called a “big fat bribe”. CBS denied any connection between the settlement and the cancellation. Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren both publicly questioned the network’s stated reasoning. No investigation has established a motive other than the one CBS gave.
Was The Late Show Failing in the Ratings?
No. It was the highest-rated programme in its slot and ended on the biggest audience of its run.
In 2025 it was the only major American late-night show to add viewers year on year, averaging about 2.4 million across its new episodes. The cancellation was announced while it led its timeslot.
The finale outperformed everything that came before it. The 21 May 2026 broadcast drew more than 6.74 million viewers, making it the most-watched weeknight episode in the series’ history and a larger audience than its own 2015 premiere.
This is the part of the story most often left out: the show was cancelled while winning its hour, and its audience grew after the end date was known.
How Did The Late Show Sign Off?
With a musical finale and a deliberately anticlimactic joke.
The last episode was the 1,801st of the series and the 118th of its eleventh season. Paul McCartney closed it by performing the Beatles song “Hello, Goodbye” with Jon Batiste, Elvis Costello, bandleader Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine, and the show’s staff on stage.
The guest list ran to Bryan Cranston, Paul Rudd, Ryan Reynolds, Tig Notaro, Tim Meadows, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Andy Cohen, Elijah Wood and Jon Stewart, along with Colbert’s Strike Force Five podcast partners Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver and Seth Meyers. Colbert had teased Pope Leo XIV as the final guest; the pope did not appear, and the no-show was played as the closing gag.
Exactly twenty-four hours later he turned up where he said he would. In his final monologue he joked that public access television was “probably where you’ll see me next”, and on 22 May 2026 he hosted an episode of Only in Monroe, a public access programme in Monroe, Michigan, with guests including Eminem, Jack White, Steve Buscemi and Jeff Daniels.
It Won More Emmys After It Was Cancelled
The Late Show won the top variety award at the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards on 14 September 2026, almost four months after it went off air.
It took Outstanding Variety Series, beating The Daily Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Saturday Night Live and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The academy had merged the scripted variety and talk categories that year after submissions fell, and Colbert’s show had won the talk award in 2025, giving it the category in both of its final two eligible years. It also won Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, and its online companion Colbert Before Air won the short-form comedy, drama or variety category.
Colbert used his acceptance to press the industry to hire his former staff, who lost their jobs when the show closed.
Will Stephen Colbert Host Another Show?
Nothing has been announced, and as of 2 November 2026 he has no television or streaming series.
He has not ruled one out. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published in early May 2026, before the finale, he said: “I could see creating a show. But I don’t know what form it would take. I’m still doing this show.” He told the same outlet he was not planning a stand-up tour, while leaving open the possibility of live performance at some point.
He goes into the United States midterm elections of 3 November 2026 without a nightly programme for the first time in his hosting career, which began with The Colbert Report in 2005. Unlike some hosts who have left American television, he has not stepped back from the industry; he has changed jobs within it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Stephen Colbert Get Fired?
Not in the usual sense. CBS ended the programme he hosted and retired the franchise instead of replacing him, so there was no role left to hold. The network attributed the decision to economics, not to his work.
When Was the Last Episode of The Late Show?
Thursday 21 May 2026, the 1,801st episode. Paul McCartney performed “Hello, Goodbye” to close the broadcast.
Is Stephen Colbert Still on CBS?
No. He has had no programme on the network since the finale, and CBS has said it will not revive the Late Show brand with a new host.
What Lord of the Rings Movie Is Stephen Colbert Writing?
A film with the working title The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past, for Warner Bros. He shares the screenplay credit with Philippa Boyens and Peter McGee. No release date has been set.
Has Stephen Colbert Retired?
No. He is 62 and working as a screenwriter, and he has said he could imagine making another show without committing to a format.
