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Craig's final show starts with the usual cold open, but this time showing a montage of friends from the show performing Dead Man Fall's song "Bang Your Drum." Some are shown lip-synching to the song, while others are shown carrying and playing a large bass drum.

Cameos in the montage include: Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick (plus dog Lily), Kristen Bell (plus daughter Delta Bell as "drum", 14 days before birth), Pierce Brosnan, Steve Carell, Don Cheadle, Kristin Chenoweth, Marion Cotillard, Tenacious D, Jeff Daniels, Ted Danson, Kat Dennings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tony Hale, Carl Edwards, Cedric the Entertainer, Jon Hamm, Sean Hayes, Samuel L. Jackson, Rashida Jones, Toby Keith, Jimmy Kimmel, Larry King, Angela Kinsey, Mila Kunis, Lisa Kudrow, Thomas Lennon, Jane Lynch, Justin Long, James Marsden, Matthew McConaughey, Mary McCormack (plus the rattlesnake mug she gifted Ferguson), Joel McHale, Tim Meadows, Metallica, Kunal Nayyar, Geoff Peterson, Regis Philbin, Ray Romano, Bob Saget, William Shatner, Michael Sheen, Quentin Tarantino, Josh Robert Thompson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty White, Henry Winkler, Shailene Woodley, "Weird Al" Yankovic, Late Late Show Puppets and others. The pre-taped (35 of the cameos were guests taped at their final Late Late Show appearances, from Marsden on October 14 to White and Lennon on December 17) montage segued to the studio with Ferguson continuing the song backed by the occasional semi-house band Bone Patrol, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones a full choir, various celebrities, musicians and friends of the show.

The monologue begins with a short time lapse of Craig coming out to start show through the last 10 years, starting on his first day (January 3, 2005) to his last. Craig thanks his comedic partner Josh Robert Thompson, the viewers, the crew, and explains "Over the years, going with this show out and around, or going and doing stand-up with Josh, I've come into contact with a lot of people who are viewers of this show, and although I said my goodbyes to the crew, the people who made this show are you. You came to a show that, let's be honest, a bit of a fixer upper. It kind of stayed that way, but what I hope we've done ... maybe art is a very grand word, but I think what we managed to do here is make something that wasn't here before. So in that sense maybe it is a piece of art, it didn't exist and now it does. What we've done here, it doesn't go away because I stopped doing it, we stop doing this and we start doing something else ... maybe ... later, or maybe I go away and this is it! But I think what was more overwhelming than anything else in the experience of doing this show was making a connection with a country which I became a part of, which is astonishing to me. Even in the course of this show I became an American, officially and particularly for my friends at the IRS, I am now a fully fledged American. However, what I can't be is a member of a club, which I didn't really ask to join, I wanted to do this show ... and now we've done this show, and if you will indulge me in whatever I'm doing now and come to whatever I do next I'd be very grateful, because my kids are still young."

Hosts

Ferguson (episodes)

Corden (episodes)

• Tom Snyder (1995–99)
• Craig Kilborn (1999–2004)
• Craig Ferguson (2005–14)
• 2015 guest hosts
• James Corden (2015–23)

• Late Show
• Geoff Peterson
• Reggie Watts
• Carpool Karaoke
• Carpool Karaoke: The Series
• Drop the Mic
• Television City