CBS has announced that Stephen Colbert will be replacing David Letterman on the Late Show.
What makes this interesting is that Colbert will drop his faux-conservative persona and will be himself. Or as Colbert put it “I won’t be doing the new show in character, so we’ll all get to find out how much of him was me. I’m looking forward to it.”
UPDATE: Good article about the switch.
7 Comments
Man, I will miss him. Comedy Central puts Daily Show and Colbert Report online very next day, I doubt CBS will put Late Show episodes online.
Such a waste, anyone could do late Night (except Chevy Chase). No one can replace Colbert
He will be missed.
I think this is such an odd choice. I have no doubt that he will do well, but like Bard says, just about anyone can do late night. Colbert had such a niche program with so many levels of satire and sarcasm and comedy that Colbert (soft T) did so well by making people look stupid by agreeing with them. As smart as Colbert (hard T) is, and as well as I’m sure he’ll do, I just can’t help but be really bummed that the Report is ending.
I can only guess that Colbert (who has always pronounced his name with the silent t) feels he has played that role more than long enough. Plus, he is a really really good interviewer. If you read the link in the UPDATE, they say that Colbert has been wanting to take over Late Night for a while.
I think he will make a great host. I think you guys think anyone can do late night only because for the last few years the reigning late night hosts haven’t been that exceptional.
If you miss Stephen, just watch O’Reilly or Hannity. There really is very little difference.
Although, now that I think about it… Colbert (the character) is much more self aware than either of them.
I think many of us have grown to love and secretly admire the conservative, self-centered, super-clever Colbert, that seeing the real Colbert is going to be a bit of a shock, at least at first. I loved how he tortured my favorite spokespeople of liberal causes; it was embarrassing, but always forced us to work harder and pay more attention to what we were trying to achieve. The shift in character is going to be very interesting.