Stephen Colbert's late-night colleagues are clearing the way for his farewell. On Tuesday, People reported that The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon will skip a new episode on May 21, the same night The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs its finale. Instead, Fallon's show will air a rerun in solidarity.
This follows news that Jimmy Kimmel Live! will also forgo a new episode that night, opting for a repeat to honor Colbert's final farewell on late-night television. Kimmel made a similar gesture in 2015 when he chose not to air a new episode as David Letterman, Colbert's predecessor on The Late Show, retired from the CBS program. Letterman is scheduled to appear as a guest on Colbert's show this coming Thursday.
Since CBS unexpectedly canceled Colbert's program last summer, Kimmel, Fallon, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver have fiercely rallied behind him. The group, who teamed up for the Strike Force Five podcast during the 2023 Hollywood strikes, reunited on Colbert's show on Monday to tease a special emergency episode set to be released on Wednesday, May 13.
The final episode of The Late Show is scheduled for Thursday, May 21, at 11:35 p.m. ET. Moving forward, the late-night slot will be replaced by Byron Allen's comedy show, Comics Unleashed.
