Variety: Stephen Colbert’s ‘Late Night’ Finale an Underwhelming ‘Letdown… Gifted at Neither Interview nor Sketch’

Stephen Colbert’s final bow as host of The Late Show was panned as a “letdown” by Variety with the paper noting that Colbert was never good at either the show’s skits or its interviews with celebrity guests.

Colbert was ultimately fired by CBS as ten years of consistently falling ratings and forty-million-dollar annual budget deficits cut into his viability.

Thursday’s show was the host’s final night broadcasting from New York City’s famed Ed Sullivan Theater. In the end, though, Variety was not impressed.

Writing for the paper, TV critic Daniel D’Addario lamented that even in his final big show, “Colbert couldn’t, ultimately, escape being Colbert,” because his failings were still up front and center. The critic lamented, “Unfortunately, this host is gifted at neither interview nor sketch.”

D’Addario blasted Colbert, for instance, for constantly talking over his big guest, Beatles founder Paul McCartney.

“In one particularly