Colbert gets quizzed by Robert De Niro, Martha Stewart, others

Stephen Colbert spent his second-to-last night being grilled by a roll call of guests that doubled as a farewell statement for network late night. On Wednesday’s episode of The Late Show, John Dickerson introduced a parade of familiar faces, including Billy Crystal, Weird Al Yankovic, Josh Brolin, Martha Stewart, Mark Hamill, Jim Gaffigan, Jeff Daniels, Tiffany Haddish, Evie McGee Colbert, Amy Sedaris, Ben Stiller, Aubrey Plaza, James Taylor and Robert De Niro, all taking turns with the host’s signature Colbert Questionert.

The segment, launched in 2021 with Tom Hanks as the first participant, uses the same 15 questions in the same order to draw out personal details from guests. More than 80 public figures have taken part, and by the time Colbert sat in the hot seat, the bit had become one of his show’s most recognizable tools for mixing celebrity, self-parody and sharp-edged conversation. De Niro’s turn carried an unmistakably political edge, with a joke aimed at Donald Trump and the still-unreleased Epstein files, a reminder that the segment has often done more than mine showbiz anecdotes.

Colbert’s own answers kept the tone personal and distinctly his. He said his preferred sandwich was a summer tomato sandwich, with Katz’s pastrami the rest of the year, and he closed with five words that sounded like a compact final statement on his run: “My family, my friends, fun.” The answer landed as part of a larger goodbye that had been building for months around the show’s final stretch.

CBS announced in July 2025 that The Late Show with Stephen Colbert would end in May 2026 and that the Late Show franchise would be retired, closing the book on a brand that began with David Letterman in 1993. CBS News described it as the end of the No. 1 network show in late night, a notable marker at a time when the genre’s audience and cultural reach are increasingly split across streaming, clips and social platforms. The final four episodes featured a “Worst of The Late Show (Not A Clip Show!)” night, Jon Stewart and Steven Spielberg, a performance by Colbert and David Byrne, and Bruce Springsteen, while the final episode itself was kept secret.

That guest-heavy farewell, staged inside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, showed how Colbert’s show tried to remain a cultural gathering place even as traditional network late night shrank around it. It also highlighted how much of the format’s afterlife now lives outside the broadcast clock, including Erik George’s searchable Coal Bare Questionnaire archive, which preserves every public figure who has taken the quiz.