Stephen Colbert to Succeed Letterman on ‘Late Show’ | Hacker News Reader

Stephen Colbert to Succeed Letterman on ‘Late Show’

nytimes.com

65 pointsnkrumm15 comments

It will be interesting to see how Colbert structures his new show. Will he still play the sort of character he plays on the Colbert Report or will he be more like his normal self? I suspect it will be somewhere in between. He will have to tone down the political aspects of his satire, but he will still use a bombastic personality style as a source of humor.

If anyone can pull it off though, it's Stephen Colbert. When I first heard about the Colbert Report I thought "Oh that will be a fun little experiment after The Daily Show, but it will get tiresome after a few months". But he has managed to keep an audience for years. He's very smart and seems to nail the right tone in every circumstance. Listen to his talk at the recent RSA conference as an example. His jokes have some bite to them but he manages to find a good balance between being not being too mean and not being too conciliatory.

It's already been reported that he'll drop the persona.

I assume he will do this as himself, and not as "Stephen Colbert"?

I imagine he'll make a big deal about his "transition" to himself in the last week of his show on Comedy Central. I think it's interesting that the big spots are now Fallon, Colbert, and Stewart with some Arsenio Hall, Seth Myers, and John Oliver. It really is a new era.

I don't know. Would he drop the character that made him successful in the first place? He already has a successful talk show and a lot of leverage. I suspect he negotiated a lot of freedom, though I can't be sure how far he'll go with it.

I would assume so. Playing an oblivious conservative doesn't have anything to do with the Late Show. But it will be so strange to see him be himself instead of play his character. I almost don't know how I feel about it!

He's been leaking through the character for years.

This is terrible news, its the closest thing to retiring right? It might be a wider audience for Colbert and his team (according to another report he told his team they are all moving to CBS) but surely they will have to water down their content to fit the Late Show model.

edit: To clarify - by 'retire' I mean surrendering to a more mainstream role rather than continuing with the biting satire of The Report. I hope I'm proven wrong. He did subvert the White House Correspondents' dinner (a gig where most comics pull their punches) so perhaps there is hope that he will tackle this with equal skill.

I believe Leno would be a good comparison, hardly seems like he retired once starting the Tonight Show.

EDIT: Am I incorrect that he was (and still is) a well-respected comedian prior to taking the gig? He changed his act but his career/success took off. Colbert's already pretty successful but this doesn't seem like a retirement move.

I have my doubts about that being a successful transition. If he keeps his Colbert Report persona, I think we will lose the Late Show demographic. Will enough Colbert Report audience follow him to make the show a success? If he is himself, I fear he won't be as interesting and will lose his old audience. He will already have an uphill battle just taking over for a legend that has been in that seat for so many years. He only gets one shot to do this right.

I don't think I want to watch him as himself. I'd rather watch "Stephen Colbert". I doubt he'll get me away from Fallon in that time slot.

This is very interesting via-a-vis commedy central.

The spin off (of the DS on CC) making National Network:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colbert_Report

It will be very neat to learn how this decision was made in a few years. Was Stewart offered the job or was Colbert the top pick?

I'd guess Colbert got offered, his character and inherent satire allows him to distance all the polarizing issues a bit.

Interesting this all was probably happening while the '#cancelcolbert' saga was umfolding. Wonder if there were any anterior motives employed by the instigators.

I don't think this is a good move. Who will fill the role of the Steven Colbert the character. We desperately need his current show to continue.

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