And John Lithgow Turned It Into Something Unforgettable On The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. What Followed Wasn’t Just A Tribute — It Was A Powerful, Almost Defiant Farewell. Lithgow’s Poem, “The Mighty Colbert,” Didn’t Simply Celebrate A Legacy… It Challenged The Silence Around Its Ending, Delivering Sharp, Emotional Lines That Felt Like Both Praise And Protest. “Why Was He Cancelled?” He Asked — And Suddenly, The Room Wasn’t Just Listening… It Was Feeling Every Word. The Laughter Faded. The Energy Shifted. Some In The Audience Wiped Away Tears As The Moment Unfolded Into Something Far Deeper Than Television. By The End, It Didn’t Feel Like A Performance At All — It Felt Like A Goodbye No One Was Ready To Face.
As CBS prepares to conclude The Late Show, the tributes to host Stephen Colbert have started pouring in. Jimmy Fallon recently shared a song for Colbert during his appearance and now John Lithgow has composed a poem for the beloved late-night host.
Lithgow explained that he wanted Colbert to hear the poem on TV live “in front of everybody.” He titled it “The Mighty Colbert.”
“The time has arrived/ For us all to prepare/ For the doleful departure of Stephen Colbert,” Lithgow read. “How will we last in the gaping black hole/ That’s left in the absence of his merry soul?”
In the poem, Lithgow commented on the show’s impending end, set for May 21, and Donald Trump’s involvement in its cancellation. “So why is he cancelled?/ Why trash all the pleasure?/ Why yank off the air this beloved national treasure?” Lithgow read. “Stephen’s tale is a lesson for all who come after/ Beware of a boss with thin skin and no laughter.”
He concluded, “But don’t mourn for Stephen/ He’s going to be fine/ He’ll only get better/ Like aging fine wine/ With a talent so rich and discernment so rare/ There’s much more to come from the mighty Colbert.”
Lithgow appeared on The Late Show to promote his Broadway play, Giant, in which he portrays problematic author Roald Dahl. He’s also playing Dumbledore in the forthcoming HBO series adaptation of the Harry Potter novels. Lithgow noted that taking on two big projects at 80 years old is “exhausting but exhilarating.”
Last year, CBS announced that it planned end its late-night talk show, hosted by Colbert for over a decade, amid financial issues at the network.
“We consider Stephen Colbert irreplaceable and will retire The Late Show franchise at that time. We are proud that Stephen called CBS home. He and the broadcast will be remembered in the pantheon of greats that graced late-night television,” CBS wrote in a statement. “This is purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night. It is not related in any way to the show’s performance, content or other matters happening at Paramount.”
Colbert addressed the decision on his show, noting, “I’m not being replaced. This is all just going away. I do want to say that the folks of CBS have been great partners.”
Colbert took aim at Paramount during a speech at 2026 Writers Guild Awards on Sunday night, where he was honored with the Walter Bernstein Award. “As far as I can tell, no one in late-night is fomenting a revolution,” he said. “As we know, the revolution will not be televised. It was going to be televised, but then Paramount bought it. Evidently, the revolution was losing, like, $40 million a year — it had to go. I hear the revolution is thinking about starting a Substack.”
