Stephen Colbert’s 11-season run behind the “Late Show” desk came to a close last night. And with that, there is one less man in a suit to watch on late-night television.

For the better part of a half-century, the suited late-night host has been one of TV’s stubborn constants. Even as America has undergone a great style make-under — as chief executives have discarded their ties, and half-zip sweaters supplanted blazers in corporate life — you could still rely on the impish late-night host in a dark suit. He is the jester clad like a diplomat. The comforting clown who dressed like a litigator.

Colbert hewed to the stock uniform of late-night hosts: dark suit, pressed white shirt and unremarkable tie. The outfit was so vital to the job that suits became a topic during his protracted farewell tour.

“What are you going to do about all of your suits?” Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night compatriot, asked Colbert on a recent episode of “Strike Force Five,” a limited run podcast featuring five late-night hosts, including Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and John Oliver. (Currently, all major late-night hosts are middle-aged white men.)

“Originally, they said I couldn’t have any,” replied Colbert, whose show CBS announced in July that it would cancel, citing financial reasons. The plan then was for the suits to be sold for charity, but eventually, Colbert said, the network relented. “I’m giving them to a bunch of people,” he said, including his two adult sons. “I’ve got like 18 tuxedos at this point.”