Former 'Colbert Report' Intern Recalls 'Greatest Place to Work'

© Ben Goldman

Former Colbert Report intern Ben Goldman shares “entrepreneurial” lessons he learned from working on the show, posting about his experience on Reddit and also his new mobile app, Qork:

One of the most poignant memories I have of my time at TCR was the company culture. Ridiculous artwork of Stephen hung on all the walls, and props rested on all the shelves like historic artifacts. Staff and crew ate together in communal spaces and went out for drinks nearly every Thursday night. There was mutual respect among everyone, a feature that began at the top with Stephen himself who would know the name of every employee and intern that worked on the show. The result was that we were united in our obsession with the product being great.

At one point, a script supervisor told me very seriously “This is the greatest place in the world to work, it never gets better than this.” The intense love the team had for working at the show, where people were cool and the product was great, is one of the main reasons the show succeeded.

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Stephen Colbert is a genius, without a doubt in my mind. But he didn’t let that get in the way of hiring people who were smarter, and perhaps even funnier, than he is. Some of his writers were truly prodigal in their ability to write jokes, and Colbert would encourage them relentlessly. During every “commercial break,” he’d have a stable of writers and showrunners go up to his desk to give him notes and Stephen would listen to everything they said before continuing the show.

One time during a taping when a pre-filmed segment was airing, I watched Stephen talk to one of the showrunners and ask about who wrote that bit. He was utterly impressed and a few months later, that writer was promoted to head writer.

Full article: Qork