Paul McCartney joins Stephen Colbert for Late Late Show finale

Stephen Colbert signed off on the final episode of The Late Late Show last night with special guest Paul McCartney, bringing the show's 33-year run to an end.

McCartney's performance marked his return to the very room where the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.

62 years later, he closed the show with Colbert and Elvis Costello singing backup vocals, along with former Late Show band leader Jon Batiste, final band leader Louis Cato, and the rest of the Late Show band, performing 'Hello, Goodbye' as the show's crew and staff gave their final bow.

Throughout the episode, there was speculation over who would be Colbert's final guest.

McCartney "happened to be in the area" and sat down with Colbert to share his thoughts on returning to the theatre, and his first impressions of the US when touring with the Beatles.

"Where all the music we loved came from, all the rock 'n' roll, the blues, the whole thing...America was just the land of the free, the greatest democracy," he said about the US. "Yes, that's what it was. That's what it still is, hopefully".

In the days leading up to the final show, an abundance of guest stars paid tribute to Colbert.

Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Bruce Springsteen, and Colbert's late-night colleagues Jon Stewart, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, and John Oliver all stopped by his desk.

CBS said last year that the cancellation of the show was "purely a financial decision" and "is not related in any way to the show's performance, content or other matters".

The Late Late Show, hosted by Stephen Colbert since 2015, was cancelled by CBS last July, three days after Colbert slammed the network for settling a lawsuit with the US President.

The lawsuit against CBS alleged that the network deceptively edited an interview with former US Vice President Kamala Harris that aired on its 60 Minutes news programme, in an effort to tip the scales in favour of the Democratic Party in the 2024 US Presidential election. Paramount agreed to make the payment of $16 million to settle the lawsuit.