The massive lighted Late Show sign that hung over The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has a new home in West Hollywood. Jeff Douek said on Monday that he won the April auction for the sign, and photos and videos he shared showed the 12′ x 8’6″ x 9″ piece being delivered and installed on the rooftop of WeHo Bistro.
That matters now because the sign is no longer just a piece of TV history stored away somewhere out of view. It is already up where fans can see it, and Douek said the restaurant plans to keep it on the rooftop for about two weeks before moving it to a permanent wall installation inside.
The sign sold for $102,100 after drawing more than 170 bids, a price that showed how much appetite there was for a relic tied to late-night television and the years it spent associated with the Ed Sullivan Theater. Colbert put it up for auction in a late April Late Show Home Shopping segment with Jon Stewart, telling viewers, “Buy this, and, like me, you can have The Late Show hanging over your head for the rest of your life.”
Douek said the restaurant learned the sign was being auctioned to benefit World Central Kitchen, and he framed the move as more than a purchase. Beneath the sign, a banner read, “Thank you Stephen Colbert for all the magic,” and Douek wrote that the iconic sign had found a new home in the heart of West Hollywood, where it could keep being seen, appreciated and shared with everyone.
There is a quiet twist in that journey. The sign once belonged to The Late Show’s original home at the Ed Sullivan Theater, but now it is headed for a public wall in West Hollywood instead of staying tied to the place most viewers first associated with it. For the moment, though, the rooftop display gives fans a chance to stop by, take photos and get a little of that late-night magic before it moves inside.
