Stephen Colbert and graphics head Andro Buneta presented a “Worst of The Late Show” segment featuring never-aired graphics and NSFW sketches [1, 2].

The segment serves as a creative retrospective as the series prepares to end. By showcasing rejected mockups and risky content, the show provides a rare glimpse into the editorial and corporate constraints of late-night television.

Filmed at the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, the special occurred during the final week of the program in early June 2026 [1]. The segment focused on the show's creative archive, specifically highlighting the ideas that were deemed too bizarre or inappropriate for broadcast [1, 4].

“We dug up some of the most bizarre graphics we ever made,” Colbert said [1].

Buneta said the archive contained a significant amount of unseen material. “There are dozens of concepts that never saw the light of day, and it's fun to finally share them,” Buneta said [2].

Some of the material included sketches that were categorized as NSFW or too risky for the show's advertisers [2, 5]. While some reports attributed the removals to the content being NSFW, other sources indicated that the risks to advertising revenue were the primary driver for pulling the sketches [3, 5].

The “Worst of” segment allows the production team to celebrate the failure, and experimentation, that often occur behind the scenes of a long-running series [1, 4].

““We dug up some of the most bizarre graphics we ever made.””

The release of the 'Graphics Graveyard' highlights the tension between creative ambition and corporate sponsorship in network television. By airing content previously deemed too risky for advertisers, the show acknowledges the invisible boundaries that shape late-night comedy and provides a historical record of the series' internal creative process.