For more than two decades, Stephen Colbert has lived in Montclair, driven past the same coffee shops, walked the same parks and sent his kids to the same schools as everyone else in town. That’s not how most people think of a late night host. But in Montclair, it’s just how things are.
On Thursday night, the Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air its final episode on CBS. The story of why it’s ending is more complicated than the official explanation.
Why the Late Show Is Ending
CBS announced the cancellation in July 2025, calling it “purely a financial decision against a challenging backdrop in late night.” Not everyone bought that explanation. The cancellation came days after Colbert called a $16 million legal settlement between Paramount and President Trump “a big fat bribe” at the same time as Paramount was seeking FCC approval for its $8 billion merger with Skydance Media. The FCC approved the deal in late July 2025. Many media analysts and fellow hosts openly questioned whether the timing was a coincidence.
CBS called Colbert irreplaceable and said it would retire the Late Show franchise entirely rather than find a new host.
What Stephen Colbert’s Cancellation Means for Montclair
The Late Show wasn’t just something Montclair residents watched. For many, it was something they felt a quiet ownership over, a major American institution hosted by someone who has spent two decades as part of this community.
Farnoosh put it plainly on this week’s episode of the Montclair Pod: “I hope to God this doesn’t mean he’s leaving Montclair.” Mike was less worried. “They can’t leave, can they?” he said. “Like Robert Redford couldn’t leave Sundance.”
It’s a joke, but it points at something real. Living in town for two decades means you turn up in people’s lives occasionally at a park, on a busy street, going about your day.
Mike recalled spotting him at the archery field in Brookdale Park about 10 years ago, when Colbert’s kids were young. Colbert was talking with the instructor about keeping up with the sport through the winter. The instructor mentioned an indoor facility nearby, pricey but worth it. “I thought it was so nice,” Mike said, “because the guy probably didn’t know who he was, and it must have been really nice for Colbert at that moment to be treated like a normal, anonymous person. I imagine that almost never happens to him.”
Farnoosh had her own story. She saw him walking out of a building onto Bloomfield Avenue one afternoon. Someone stopped him and asked for something. He declined, politely, and kept moving, clearly in a rush to get somewhere. Just a guy with somewhere to be.
The Montclair Film Festival Connection
One thing ties Colbert to Montclair regardless of what happens next on television: the Montclair Film Festival.
He and his wife Evelyn McGee Colbert co-founded the festival, now in its 15th year. Each fall, it draws filmmakers, audiences and occasional celebrities to venues across town for 10 days of screenings, panels and Q&As. It has grown into one of the most celebrated local cultural events in New Jersey, and it exists because the Colberts chose to build something here, not just live here.
Whether Colbert stays in Montclair long-term is an open question. But his ties to the town run deeper than a television contract.
What Replaces the Late Show — and What Doesn’t
CBS has announced that Comics Unleashed, hosted by media executive and comedian Byron Allen, will take the Late Show’s time slot starting May 22. Unlike traditional late night, where a single host anchors a desk, interviews guests and delivers a nightly monologue, Comics Unleashed is structured as a panel show, with multiple comedians discussing the news together. Think less Johnny Carson, more Bill Maher’s old Politically Incorrect.
Whether it works is another question. What it won’t replicate, for Montclair, is a host whose face was familiar here for reasons that had nothing to do with television
The Late Show is ending. But if history holds, Colbert will be back at the Film Festival this fall, on a stage somewhere in town, in front of a crowd that thinks of him as exactly what he’s always been here: a neighbor.
Follow the Montclair Film Festival’s 2026 lineup at montclairfilm.org. Have a Colbert-in-Montclair story? Find us on Instagram at @montclairpod.
