It has been a madcap few weeks as “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” winds down after an 11-year run that also signals the end of 33 years of late night altogether on CBS.

Hijinks have run the gamut from tearful reminiscing, to furniture-flinging, to airing snippets from the cutting-room floor. It’s ratcheting up to what promises to be an emotional farewell from Colbert to his millions of fans — at least as far as his current platform goes. The consensus is that the departing host will find other ways to bring his sharp wits and comedic talent to the world.

“You can take a man’s show,” “Late Show” predecessor David Letterman told him. “You can’t take a man’s voice.”

Last week, Letterman helped Colbert smash a giant CBS logo with objects they hurled from the roof of the Ed Sullivan Theater, including set furniture, a three-tiered farewell cake, and Letterman’s signature watermelons. Letterman, who earlier this month branded CBS execs as “lying weasels,” said on Colbert he’s “pissed” that the entire late show franchise is ending with Colbert’s show.

Likewise, on Tuesday Jon Stewart, Colbert’s friend and producing partner for decades, passed on a bit of advice he’d gotten from Letterman when MTV scrapped his own short-lived “The Jon Stewart Show” in 1995.

“‘Don’t confuse cancellation for failure,'” Stewart recalled Letterman telling him.

Stewart then had two massive, state-of-the-art recliners brought onstage to demonstrate life after hosting. Stewart then welcomed Grammy winning singer Andra Day to the stage. Colbert’s jaw dropped as the renowned R&B songstress serenaded him with her signature hit “Rise Up.”

Since last year’s announcement, nary a guest has been able to resist skewering CBS and its parent company, Paramount+, for seeming to cave to political pressure during its bid to merge with Skydance Media last year. Though the network has insisted its cancellation announcement last July was purely a “financial decision,” it came as a surprise given that CBS had encouraged Colbert to sign a five-year contract rather than the three-year agreement he ultimately signed, he told The New York Times.

The announcement came three days after Colbert in his monologue called a $16 million settlement Paramount paid Donald Trump a “big fat bribe” designed to curry favor with the administration ahead of the Skydance merger. The $8 billion merger did move forward, just a few days after CBS announced Colbert’s cancellation, and was approved and finalized by the end of the year.

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NEW YORK — Billy Joel is slamming an unauthorized biopic underway about the Piano Man, helmed by “Michael” editor John Ottman.

The “New York State of Mind” crooner, 77, has not in any way signed off on “Billy & Me,” and has, in fact, been at odds over the production’s existence for several years, a spokesperson for Joel confirmed in a statement shared with the Daily News.

“Since 2021, the parties involved have been officially notified that they do not possess Billy Joel’s life rights and will not be able to secure the music rights required for this project,” read the statement. “Billy Joel has not authorized or supported this project in any capacity, and any attempt to move forward without it would be both legally and professionally misguided.”

Ottman, 61, not only edited the box office smash that is the authorized, albeit controversial, Michael Jackson biopic, which hit theaters late last month, but took home an Academy Award for editing the Queen-focused “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Variety was first to report the existence of “Billy & Me”— which is listed on IMDb as being in pre-production — with Ottman’s “Public Access” collaborator Adam Ripp attached to the script.

Ripp told The Hollywood Reporter that the upcoming project “is specifically not a traditional cradle-to-grave Billy Joel biopic, nor is it dependent on Billy Joel’s original music catalog.”

The “intimate origin story,” he said, is largely told through the eyes of Joel’s former manager Irwin Mazur, who, along with Joel’s friend and ex-bandmate Jon Small, provided life rights.

Joel revealed in 2025’s “And So It Goes” documentary that he’d twice attempted suicide after an affair with Small’s then-wife Elizabeth Weber, who Joel himself ended up marrying.

Ripp also clarified that he and Ottman have “tremendous respect for Billy Joel” and have never “claimed to control or possess rights to” Joel’s “iconic songs.” He also said Small saved his life after the second attempt, at which point they reconciled.

News of “Billy & Me” comes nearly a year to the day after Joel canceled the rest of his 2025 shows due to the neurological condition, normal pressure hydrocephalus, which had affected his “hearing, vision and balance.” He returned to the stage in January to play for a crowd at a Florida amphitheater.

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NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — Competitive eater Joey “Jaws” Chestnut, the reigning champion and 17-time winner of Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, will compete in the July 4 spectacle while on probation after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor battery charge.

Chestnut entered the guilty plea April 20 and was sentenced to 180 days of probation in Hamilton County, Indiana. A judge has granted him permission to travel outside the state, allowing Chestnut to defend his title and the signature Mustard Belt on Coney Island this summer.

The competitive eating sensation was accused of slapping a man across the face during a late night out at an Indiana bar, according to Us Weekly. When law enforcement later questioned Chestnut, he said he was drunk and didn’t remember the altercation, the publication reported.

Chestnut’s attorney, Mario Massillamany, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Richard Shea, the co-founder and president of Major League Eating, which oversees the Nathan's Famous contest, told the Associated Press that the altercation did not affect Chestnut's competition eligibility.

“This incident did not violate Major League Eating’s code of conduct, as it occurred outside any organizational event or activity and it was addressed by local authorities,” Shea said.

At the Nathan’s Famous contest last year, Chestnut took back the title by eating 70½ hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes after he missed the 2024 contest due to a competing sponsorship. Nathan’s had temporarily banned him from competing after he signed an endorsement deal with the plant-based meat company Impossible Foods.

Chestnut most recently won the 2026 Ultimate Bologna Showdown in Tennessee for the third straight year, consuming 16 pounds of sausage in 8 minutes to set a new world record.

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From combined wire services