On May 21, 2026, CBS aired the 1,801st and final episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, marking the end of an 11-season run for the comedian. Colbert made the best of the situation with a star-studded finale that included renditions of Elvis Costello‘s “Jump Up” and The Beatles‘ “Hello Goodbye.”
Why Elvis Costello’s “Jump Up” Mattered to Stephen Colbert
The segment began with Colbert being sucked into a wormhole, transporting him into a void-like setting. He begins singing “Jump Up,” and is quickly joined by Costello himself as well as former Late Show bandleader Jon Batiste and current bandleader Louis Cato. Each man sings part of the first verse before they join together for the chorus.
The song may be an unusual one for most fans, but it holds a special place for Colbert. Costello wrote the song in the mid-70s and recorded a demo, which has only been issued on re-releases of his breakout 1977 solo debut, “My Aim is True.” (Costello’s social media says the original demo track will be part of a box set later this fall.)
The deep cut has stuck with Colbert for decades. He shared his love for it in an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air in 2012.
“I love the song because it’s sort of a satirical song. It’s got a parodic nature to it, or not a parodic nature, but it’s really, it’s got sort of a political, satirical song,” he told Terry Gross. “And I’ve never discussed this song with Elvis, so I might get a message from Elvis Costello after this interview with you, saying, ‘You know nothing of my work. What are you talking about?’ But I’ve always thought of it as a – it’s sort of like a – it’s a person who is talking about insignificance in the name of power or of something that they want, and also talking about the hypocrisy of politicians.”
Paul McCartney, The Ed Sullivan Theater, and “Hello Goodbye”
After “Jump Up,” Colbert says goodnight, and the screen fades to black. We then hear some crackling noises, and the quartet reappeared in the Ed Sullivan Theater with the full Late Show band, the Great Big Joy Machine, and another special guest: Paul McCartney.
It’s the perfect ending to the series for so many reasons. McCartney and The Beatles made their debut on The Ed Sullivan Show in that same theater in 1964, making it a poignant tribute to a moment Rolling Stone said changed the world.
Lyrically, the song hinges on opposites. McCartney called the theme “Geminian” in Barry Miles’s book, “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now.” “It’s just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive,” the songwriter explains. “You say goodbye. I say hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day.”
The Cadences That Keep “Hello Goodbye” Moving Forward
The never-ending nature of life is reflected in the song’s harmony, too. It uses unusual cadences to subvert a feeling of resolution.
“In keeping with the mixed-message/approach-avoidance theme of the lyrics, the harmony flirts ‘heavily’ with intimations of V->I consummation, while its actual cadences turn out to be predominantly plagal or deceptive, the main exception to this being the transition between verse and refrain,” Beatles musicologist Alan W. Pollack, explains in his “Notes on…” series.
In other words, the harmony keeps suggesting a traditional V-I ending, but ducking away at the last moment. The song is in the key of C, so the plagal cadence moves from IV to I (F to C), while the deceptive cadence moves from V7 to vi (G7 to Amin). The refrain also includes a bVI to I (Ab major to C major) movement that perpetuates the circular nature of the song’s meaning.
Colbert signed off on The Late Show for the last time with a musical and spiritual message: that the world will keep turning, and he’s not done yet.
Relive the moment with the clip from The Late Show’s final episode:
