Set from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to go on display at Museum of Broadcast Communications
A piece of late-night television history is set to debut at Chicago's Museum of Broadcast Communications this week.
The original set from "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" will be on display starting Thursday night, including the authentic desk, chairs, and set pieces. They were used on "The Late Show" from 2015 until the last episode this past May at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in Midtown Manhattan in New York City.
Visitors are encouraged to experience the se for themselves or deliver a monologue from the stage, which is about three times smaller than the one inside the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
Jackie Kostek spent the morning at the Museum of Broadcast Communications, now located at 440 W. Randolph St. in the West Loop, for a preview of the exhibition. At the museum, the Colbert desk will fit in neatly with desks from NBC's "The Tonight Show" with Jimmy Fallon, and the same show of decades past with Johnny Carson — part of the exhibitions "The Johnny Carson Centennial" and "The Evolution of Late-Night Television."
Colbert's "Late Show" was honored in "The Evolution of Late-Night Television" exhibit as far back as nearly a year ago.
"When we first opened this exhibit back in October… we had Stephen's desk that he used at the Auditorium Theatre for the Democratic National Convention, which is now back over at CBS Chicago," said museum president and chief executive officer David Plier.
But when "The Late Show" was preparing to leave the air, discussions began about what to do with the set — with the memory of how much of the set for the previous iteration of "The Late Show," with David Letterman, ended up in a dumpster after Letterman handed the reins to Colbert in 2015.
"They really wanted to make sure this found a home for true fans to experience, so we got the call, and they asked if we wanted it," Plier said.
Colbert attended Northwestern University, and was discovered while part of The Second City comedy troupe in Chicago's Old Town neighborhood.
"He really does consider [Chicago] his comedy home, Plier said.
The set features Colbert's real desk and the armchair where Paul McCartney sat for the last show. The pillars behind the desk are replicas of the actual architecture of the Ed Sullivan Theatre.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications also currently features an exhibit honoring WGN-TV's Bozo's Circus.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications was founded by the late television and radio producer, host, and political analyst Bruce DuMont. It opened in 1987 at River City, 800 S. Wells St. — with a variety of historical artifacts and recordings from old-time radio and TV, a vast video archive, and a mockup news studio where youngsters could read a scripted newscast before real cameras and even toss to a pre-recorded weather forecast by WGN-TV's Tom Skilling.
The Museum of Broadcast Communications moved to the Chicago Cultural Center in 1992. The museum remained at the Cultural Center until 2003, and then operated online only for several years before opening a physical space at 360 N. State St. in River North in 2012. The current Randolph Street location opened in 2025.
This past weekend, the museum hosted a reunion of CBS Chicago staffers past and present, representing both WBBM-TV Channel 2 and the formerly CBS-owned WBBM Newsradio.
