* Comedian signs off from final 'Late Show' after 11

seasons chatting to Beatles musician

* Colbert makes pointed jokes about forced departure from

CBS

* CBS said it ended the show for financial reasons

* Cancellation sparked outcry from critics who saw it as

free speech attack

By Alicia Powell and Lisa Richwine

NEW YORK, May 21 (Reuters) - Comedian Stephen Colbert

signed off from his late-night talk show on Thursday after 11

seasons with a sentimental chat with Beatles musician Paul

McCartney and pointed jokes about his forced departure from

CBS.

The final installment of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert"

began with the comic thanking the in-person and television

audience for watching his nightly take on current events, often

punctuated by verbal jabs at Republican President Donald Trump.

"We were here to feel the news with you, and I don't know about

you, but I sure have felt it," Colbert said to laughter in the

Ed Sullivan Theater in New York.

CBS announced last July that it was cancelling the "Late Show,"

citing financial reasons. Late-night television, an American

tradition since the 1950s, has been losing viewership and

advertising dollars for years.

The decision to end the top-rated late-night talk show

sparked an outcry, however, from Democrats and other critics who

saw it as a move to silence political satire in violation of the

First Amendment's free speech protection.

The show's cancellation came as Paramount Global, at the time

the owner of CBS, was seeking the government's approval for a

merger. The deal was approved, and CBS is now a unit of David

Ellison-led Paramount Skydance ( PSKY ).

Colbert's show ranked as the most-watched among the broadcast

networks' late-night TV talk shows since the 2017-2018 season,

according to Nielsen data. This season, the "Late Show" averaged

2.1 million viewers.

On Thursday's finale, Colbert left his desk and walked

backstage to find a glowing green circle. Astrophysicist Neil

deGrasse Tyson, a frequent Colbert guest, joked that it was a

wormhole caused by "two conflicting realities," which were "a

show that was number one on late night, and it also gets

canceled."

"Your cancellation has created a rift in the

comedy-variety-talk continuum," Tyson said. "If it grows, all of

late-night television could be destroyed."

Fellow talk show hosts Jimmy Kimmel, John Oliver, Jimmy

Fallon, Seth Meyers and Jon Stewart then appeared to offer

advice.

'HELLO, GOODBYE'

Earlier, Colbert suggested he had secured an interview with

Pope Leo as his final guest. A staffer then said, in jest, that

the pontiff had canceled because he did not like the snacks in

his dressing room.

At that moment, McCartney wandered onto the stage and said

he was available. "I was just in the area. I was doing some

errands," the musician quipped.

McCartney had appeared in the same theater in 1964, when the

Beatles were introduced to Americans on "The Ed Sullivan Show."

Colbert asked McCartney what he remembered from that

performance, what Sullivan was like and how the Beatles viewed

the United States at the time.

The singer said he and his young bandmates, in their early

20s at the time, saw America as "the land of the free, the

greatest democracy."

"That's what it was, and hopefully still is," McCartney

said.

The finale ended with McCartney singing the Beatles classic

"Hello, Goodbye" with Colbert on background vocals.

When the show concluded, Trump wrote on Truth Social that

Colbert had "no talent."

"You could take any person off of the street and they would

be better than this total jerk," the president said. "Thank

goodness he's finally gone!"

Before Thursday's show, fans outside the theater lamented

the end of not just Colbert's run but also the "Late Show" as an

institution. Colbert, 62, took over the show from David

Letterman in 2015.

"This is the end of an era. The late night show is a staple.

David Letterman, Johnny Carson, it's upsetting," said fan Mike

McGillicuddy.

Another fan, Sarah Thompson, said she was "very sad that

Stephen's leaving."

"It's just going to leave a big hole in America because you

need to laugh at the end of the day from all the trauma that

we're facing," she said.