Legendary actor Bette Midler told Stephen Colbert how much she will miss him on The Late Show Tuesday night with a special performance of one of her classic hits.
Midler appeared on the show to discuss her non-profit, the New York Restoration Project, and its work in New York City, but started off by sharing a unique tribute to the talk-show host with a loving spoof of her song “Wind Beneath My Wings” from the 1988 film Beaches.
“I want to beg you, ‘don’t go, don’t go, don’t go,’” Midler said to Colbert, who reminded her he will be on the air until May.
“Well, I’m not coming back,” she joked with the host, quickly adding that she “just wanted to thank you publicly and privately for me for these last nine-and-a-half years.”
“I would not have made it through without you — you’re a voice of reason, and sanity, and honor … so I wrote a little something for you,” Midler said, noting that she has “a reputation for singing famous talk show hosts off the air.”
Miller then unrolled several sheets of paper rolled like a diploma, but was actually the song’s lyrics rewritten for the tribute.
“It must have been cold here at the Late Show, despite the high ratings and awards,” she started, continuing that he needs “a gig that’s more worthwhile, now that you’re more in demand than Epstein’s files.”
As the Late Show band slowly picked up the song’s tune, she finished the tribute — titled “Did you ever know that you’re my Frodo,” complete with myriad references to The Lord of the Rings — by noting that Colbert, in his departure from The Late Show, never “kissed the orange [expletive].”
CBS announced in July that it would be canceling The Late Show, which Colbert took over after David Letterman in 2015, more than two decades after Letterman launched when he joined the Tiffany network.
Although CBS said the decision was a financial one, critics have said the network made the decision to curry favor with the FCC for its parent company, Paramount, to merge with Skydance — a merger that was later approved.
