Drew Barrymore dances on the Late Show desk one last time for Stephen Colbert

Barrymore didn't flash Colbert like she once did David Letterman, but her gesture of support was appreciated.

By Mary Kate Carr | September 5, 2025 | 9:31am

Photo: Scott Kowalchyk/CBS

TV News The Late Show With Stephen Colbert

Drew Barrymore dances on the Late Show desk one last time for Stephen Colbert

It’s an iconic moment in late night television history: A young Drew Barrymore circa 1995 prompts Paul Shaffer to “give [her] some blues,” before enthusiastically clambering up on David Letterman‘s desk, shaking her hips, and flashing her breasts before giving the stunned host a kiss on the cheek for his birthday. On Friday, Barrymore—now part of the CBS family with her own daytime talk show—returned to the Ed Sullivan Theater 30 years later to visit Stephen Colbert in The Late Show‘s final-ever season. “I am only mildly insulted you’ve never got on the desk,” Colbert joked. “Do you want me to do a little dance for you?” Barrymore countered.

Colbert quickly backed off. “It was just a joke. I promise you. No, next time. Next time,” he said, trying to prevent her from getting out of her seat. But Barrymore was ready: She removed her jacket to reveal a “WE [heart] STEPHEN” shirt and clambered right back on the desk. The routine was a little less risqué—”It’s different now!” she exclaimed as she navigated the desk in her pencil skirt. But she got some good burlesque-style poses in with her emblazoned shirt as a bashful Colbert laughed along.

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Barrymore is far from the only person supporting Colbert in the final days of The Late Show. Fellow host Jimmy Kimmel got an Emmys For Your Consideration billboard in Los Angeles that states, “I’m voting for Stephen.” The billboard is no joke. “I think it’s a good year for Stephen to win,” Kimmel’s wife and showrunner Molly McNearney told Gold Derby. “I think it is incredibly important, the work that Stephen and his show does, and for that to be missing is going to be detrimental.” Earlier this week, John Oliver returned to The Late Show as the most frequent guest in Colbert’s run. The pair toasted “to late night shows, while supplies last.”

Oliver spent much of the segment discussing his love of Bravo’s Real Housewives Of Salt Lake City, “so CBS are not gonna be happy,” he said, “but….” He pointed at Colbert, and in lieu of explicitly stating, the network executives fired you in what was almost certainly a political bribe to appease a petty president so fuck them, both men shrugged playfully and toasted once more. No doubt there will be more declarations of love and more middle fingers to CBS as the final season of The Late Show continues.