When news stories fall through the cracks, we here at Colbert News Hub find them for a olitiost we call, In The Press.
Another month down, one month to go! While the Late Show with Stephen Colbert staff is getting acquainted with the new Ed Sullivan offices, we look back at a time when they still had to suffer in the temporary offices. In this July edition of In The Press, learn why Stephen was ‘on the floor’ at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards; learn more about Jon Batiste, about Trevor Noah, about “secret” White House meetings; and much more!
Stephen Colbert
I was at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards and Katie Couric comes up. … She’s like, “I just love you, I love humor! … I’m going to sit next to you at dinner.” … At dinner—it was a good table—it was Stephen Colbert, it was Katie and me, and then Mindy Kaling. It was a sick table. … Then Katie is like, “Oh my God, my husband’s here. He wasn’t even invited, this is so embarrassing!” Newly married, I guess. “Should I go talk to him?”—I don’t know, Katie Couric! … She went [and] left her phone open to texts from him … I picked it up without even thinking, to text him: “I wanna have anal tonight.” And I sent it. … I show Mindy, and I go, “Look what happened!” She’s like, “What do you mean ‘What happened’? You did that! You just did that!” I show Colbert and he is on the floor laughing … Katie comes back 90 seconds later, and [she] and her husband are like, “So…we’re leaving, like, I don’t know why he wants to leave?”
- There’s One Secret the Rick And Morty Guys Will Never Reveal – A.V. Club
[At this point, the Adult Swim publicist raises the topic of Stephen Colbert’s season-two guest appearance—ed.]
JR: He plays a really, really interesting character, who is sort of an equal to Rick. And not in the same way as the Alfred Molina character, which was lesser than Rick.
AVC: Is it possible he could recur, like Khan?
JR: He could easily come back.
RR: If schedule permits.
JR: Colbert’s the nicest dude. We had to get pickups, and he’s as busy as they come, especially right now, and he made time for us and was just a fucking nice, amazing guy. Gave me everything I needed and more. Really awesome guy.
- Stephen Colbert’s Message to Pope Francis – Aleteia
Stephen and various other public figures have been recording video messages to welcome Pope Francis who’ll be visiting the United States in September. (He just wants to congratulate Stephen on his new gig in person!)
Hi, Your Holiness Pope Francis. I’m Stephen Colbert—CBS. Welcome to the United States. I hope you have a great time. And I also want to thank you for saying that you want a Catholic Church that is for the poor, and about the poor.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Welcome !
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
- Jon Batistie’s ‘Late Show’ Gig Has Aspen Roots – The Aspen Times
We all know that Jon Batiste got the Late Show gig in no small part because of his remarkable appearance on The Colbert Report in 2014. But how did he get on the Report in the first place?
At last year’s festival at the Aspen Institute, Batiste met a producer for “The Colbert Report,” who soon booked him and his band, Stay Human, on the show for a late July 2014 appearance. That meeting with Colbert eventually landed him the gig as Colbert’s bandleader on “The Late Show,” which begins when Colbert takes over the show from David Letterman in September.The pair bonded during and after Batiste’s spot on the show last year, Batiste recalled Friday, and had a series of long conversations.”He was just asking me a lot of questions, and he would sit back and listen, and then he’d talk for a long time about his ideas and say, ‘What do you think of that? Are you into that?’” Batiste said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah!’”Last month, Colbert called Batiste and offered the New Orleans-bred, New York-based 28-year-old the high-profile bandleader job.
“He’s a very human sort of comedian that thinks about how to give a different perspective on everything that’s happening in the world,” Batiste said. “So we relate philosophically based on what I’m trying to do with social music.”
You can watch his 2014 interview at the Aspen Institute here.
He was back last month with another interview and performance [Link]
- CBS Moves Fast to Win New Ads for James Corden, Stephen Colbert – Variety
Every late-night host has a different relationship with advertisers. What will Stephen’s Late Show tenure mean for them? One thing is certain: If Stephen and co. keep the Report tradition alive, it’s going to be hilarious … Who knows, Stephen might consent to inserted advertising in order to enhance the critical ingredients of bringing great content tenfold!
CBS is also quietly hoping to pair advertisers with Stephen Colbert, the popular latenight host who will sit behind the desk when the next version of “The Late Show” debuts September 8.Advertisers loved when Colbert threaded Wheat Thins and Doritos into bits during his “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central as part of ad deals. The products were made part of his comedy, and fit seamlessly into the show. Behind the scenes, however, the process can be a “white knuckle experience,” according to one media buyer who worked with the host. Colbert is typically willing to hear what sponsors want to achieve, but he does not usually want them riding herd on the creative process. More often than not, marketers were not quite sure what they might see on the show when their products finally appeared. In a 2012 “Colbert Report” segment, for instance, Colbert actually lampooned the guidelines Kraft sent him about how to talk and promote Wheat Thins.
- Getting Ready to Jam with Colbert – The New Yorker
This is a great New Yorker article about Jon Batiste and Stay Human. The writer interviewed Jon during his weeklong residency at the NoMad.
Before Colbert asked Batiste to be his bandleader, he invited him to his office for a talk. But the very first time they met was on the air, on “The Colbert Report.” As interviews go on that show, it was a success. Batiste avoided the common, cringe-inducing mistake of trying to find purchase in Colbert’s particular off-center groove, and even managed the unusual feat of throwing the host off his game a little, implying that Colbert might not quite understand the conversational quality of jazz improvisation, because he seemed to prefer reading scripted questions off of cards. Colbert threw his cards away.In Colbert’s office, their conversation lasted for four hours. “He talked most of the time,” Batiste said. “That’s when I realized that we have very similar visions, except he’s in the comedy lane and I’m a musician. So what we’ve been doing is music and what he’s been doing with his team is trying to create a different perspective on jokes and improv and being a host. It just clicked.” Afterward, he called Saylor. “This situation,” he told him, “it might be the right vibe.”
Late Night Television
- How Does an Aspiring TV Writer Get Discovered by an Agent? – Splitsider
Before anything else, make sure you’re desperate to be a TV writer. Is this your dream of dreams? TV writing can be a long slog in which even the greats have lost count of their canceled shows, but they can’t imagine doing anything else. You have to love it, and if you don’t, it is palpable in your screenwriting. If you want to write a book, write a book. If you want to be an actor, act. If you want to be a lawyer, sure, but do you realize how much paperwork it entails? It sounds basic, but follow your actual passion, and the work product will naturally be of a higher quality.
Cenac went on to explain that he found one of Stewart’s bits about Herman Cain offensive, but approaching Stewart with his concerns multiple times only made things worse:
“I was the one black writer there, and so it was this thing where when you’re the “one,” whether you want to or not you wind up speaking for everybody. You speak for all the black people, but you also — at least for me — I always felt like I had to speak for all the minorities, because there’s nobody there speaking for them necessarily if something seems questionable.”
The bit eventually led to a heated altercation between Cenac and Stewart, and while Cenac stayed at the show for a year after that, he told Maron that he was miserable that whole year.
- Jon Stewart’s Secret White House Visits – Politico
Politico revealed that Jon Stewart had two private meetings with President Obama (in 2011 and 2014). For some (read: Fox News) it proves that Jon Stewart is a ‘propagandist,’ while for others (including the author of the Politico piece) it simply underlines Jon Stewart’s political and cultural significance.
To engage privately with the president in his inner sanctum at two sensitive moments — previously unreported meetings that are listed in the White House visitor logs and confirmed to POLITICO by three former Obama aides — speaks volumes about Stewart and his reach, which goes well beyond the million or so viewers who tune in to “The Daily Show” on most weeknights. … As the White House recognized, Stewart can, at times, be a more potent influence on policy than Obama himself. The 52-year-old funnyman is widely credited with changing how the government treated military veterans and Sept. 11 first responders and for the cancellation of a hyperpartisan CNN talk show. His broadsides against President George W. Bush’s Iraq War and a series of Obama missteps had a searing effect on how Americans thought about Washington.
- How the Success of ‘Daily Show’ Might Not Have Much to Do With Trevor Noah – The Hollywood Reporter
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman, The Daily Show without Jon Stewart might not be very successful for the simple reason that… it will be without Jon Stewart. Personally, I know I might watch clips online if they catch my attention, but I have to admit that I will be one of those who’ll move on… Especially now that I’ll have a 40+ -minute show to watch five times a week! How about you guys?
People who “grew up” on or invested a lot of years in Stewart and Stephen Colbert will move on, regardless of the people who replace them. This is already happening with Colbert. Larry Wilmore and The Nightly Show are a different thing entirely and not all of Colbert’s fans hung around. And while it’s true that The Colbert Report was a singular manifestation of one man’s cult of personality, do not kid yourself about the importance of The Daily Show without Stewart. For a lot of people, Stewart is The Daily Show, end of story. …
[T]he next wave coming in for Noah will be younger with different viewing habits. They will not watch the traditional way. They will, at minimum, time-shift. And until they adore Noah the way Stewart’s core base adored him, they will not make a nightly appointment with the show in the way that Comedy Central is used to.
He’s still figuring out what The Daily Show will be, once they hand him the keys. “I have a very vague picture of the show right now,” Noah says. “It’ll be like a face-lift. Because, don’t get it twisted, I’m a big fan of The Daily Show, and that’s what it’s still gonna be. It’s still gonna be The Daily Show. It’s the same way, when Fallon took over from Leno, it’s still The Tonight Show.”
I point out that Fallon has in fact completely changed The Tonight Show since taking over, turning a relatively staid talk show into a viral-video factory, and Noah agrees but says basically: The shift was natural and gradual, and he hopes to do the same thing. “Just the mere fact that I’m gonna be there in the chair changes a whole bunch of the show, you know?”
Awards Season
The same year that members have switched over to online voting, Emmy screeners will now be delivered digitally as well.
The Academy announced a multiyear partnership with Google on Tuesday afternoon, promising delivery of Chromecast devices to members in an effort to dramatically trim the volume of DVD screeners sent out every year. Per the new deal, screeners will be available on a members-only website and streaming app via the tiny USB drives.
- Emmy Nominations: Do Big Finales Skew Balance Between Old and New? – Variety
The Emmys are now only one month and a half away. Because we’ve had to say goodbye to a significant number of shows this past year, the author argues that “the choice boils down to paying tribute to the old, or ushering in the new.” To which I would say, how about the best? I know, I know: convenient, for someone who wants The Colbert Report to win.
The Emmys forever seem to be grappling with a tension that, in award circles, is virtually unique to television — one that, thanks to a spate of big series finales, seems more sharply focused than usual this year. In the simplest terms, the choice boils down to paying tribute to the old, or ushering in the new? …
Even those programs, however, feel somewhat pallid compared to the twin loss in variety series, where “Late Show With David Letterman” and Jon Stewart’s stint on “The Daily Show” are coming to an end after 22 and 16 years, respectively. “The Colbert Report” makes that latenight exodus a hat trick, although its host, Stephen Colbert, isn’t exactly going away as he prepares to replace Letterman in September.
In the Press – July 2015
When news stories fall through the cracks, we here at Colbert News Hub find them for a olitiost we call, In The Press.
Another month down, one month to go! While the Late Show with Stephen Colbert staff is getting acquainted with the new Ed Sullivan offices, we look back at a time when they still had to suffer in the temporary offices. In this July edition of In The Press, learn why Stephen was ‘on the floor’ at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards; learn more about Jon Batiste, about Trevor Noah, about “secret” White House meetings; and much more!
Stephen Colbert
I was at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards and Katie Couric comes up. … She’s like, “I just love you, I love humor! … I’m going to sit next to you at dinner.” … At dinner—it was a good table—it was Stephen Colbert, it was Katie and me, and then Mindy Kaling. It was a sick table. … Then Katie is like, “Oh my God, my husband’s here. He wasn’t even invited, this is so embarrassing!” Newly married, I guess. “Should I go talk to him?”—I don’t know, Katie Couric! … She went [and] left her phone open to texts from him … I picked it up without even thinking, to text him: “I wanna have anal tonight.” And I sent it. … I show Mindy, and I go, “Look what happened!” She’s like, “What do you mean ‘What happened’? You did that! You just did that!” I show Colbert and he is on the floor laughing … Katie comes back 90 seconds later, and [she] and her husband are like, “So…we’re leaving, like, I don’t know why he wants to leave?”
[At this point, the Adult Swim publicist raises the topic of Stephen Colbert’s season-two guest appearance—ed.]
JR: He plays a really, really interesting character, who is sort of an equal to Rick. And not in the same way as the Alfred Molina character, which was lesser than Rick.
AVC: Is it possible he could recur, like Khan?
JR: He could easily come back.
RR: If schedule permits.
JR: Colbert’s the nicest dude. We had to get pickups, and he’s as busy as they come, especially right now, and he made time for us and was just a fucking nice, amazing guy. Gave me everything I needed and more. Really awesome guy.
Stephen and various other public figures have been recording video messages to welcome Pope Francis who’ll be visiting the United States in September. (He just wants to congratulate Stephen on his new gig in person!)
Hi, Your Holiness Pope Francis. I’m Stephen Colbert—CBS. Welcome to the United States. I hope you have a great time. And I also want to thank you for saying that you want a Catholic Church that is for the poor, and about the poor.
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.”
Welcome !
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
We all know that Jon Batiste got the Late Show gig in no small part because of his remarkable appearance on The Colbert Report in 2014. But how did he get on the Report in the first place?
At last year’s festival at the Aspen Institute, Batiste met a producer for “The Colbert Report,” who soon booked him and his band, Stay Human, on the show for a late July 2014 appearance. That meeting with Colbert eventually landed him the gig as Colbert’s bandleader on “The Late Show,” which begins when Colbert takes over the show from David Letterman in September.The pair bonded during and after Batiste’s spot on the show last year, Batiste recalled Friday, and had a series of long conversations.”He was just asking me a lot of questions, and he would sit back and listen, and then he’d talk for a long time about his ideas and say, ‘What do you think of that? Are you into that?’” Batiste said. “And I was like, ‘Yeah!’”Last month, Colbert called Batiste and offered the New Orleans-bred, New York-based 28-year-old the high-profile bandleader job.
“He’s a very human sort of comedian that thinks about how to give a different perspective on everything that’s happening in the world,” Batiste said. “So we relate philosophically based on what I’m trying to do with social music.”
You can watch his 2014 interview at the Aspen Institute here.
He was back last month with another interview and performance [Link]
Every late-night host has a different relationship with advertisers. What will Stephen’s Late Show tenure mean for them? One thing is certain: If Stephen and co. keep the Report tradition alive, it’s going to be hilarious … Who knows, Stephen might consent to inserted advertising in order to enhance the critical ingredients of bringing great content tenfold!
CBS is also quietly hoping to pair advertisers with Stephen Colbert, the popular latenight host who will sit behind the desk when the next version of “The Late Show” debuts September 8.Advertisers loved when Colbert threaded Wheat Thins and Doritos into bits during his “Colbert Report” on Comedy Central as part of ad deals. The products were made part of his comedy, and fit seamlessly into the show. Behind the scenes, however, the process can be a “white knuckle experience,” according to one media buyer who worked with the host. Colbert is typically willing to hear what sponsors want to achieve, but he does not usually want them riding herd on the creative process. More often than not, marketers were not quite sure what they might see on the show when their products finally appeared. In a 2012 “Colbert Report” segment, for instance, Colbert actually lampooned the guidelines Kraft sent him about how to talk and promote Wheat Thins.
This is a great New Yorker article about Jon Batiste and Stay Human. The writer interviewed Jon during his weeklong residency at the NoMad.
Before Colbert asked Batiste to be his bandleader, he invited him to his office for a talk. But the very first time they met was on the air, on “The Colbert Report.” As interviews go on that show, it was a success. Batiste avoided the common, cringe-inducing mistake of trying to find purchase in Colbert’s particular off-center groove, and even managed the unusual feat of throwing the host off his game a little, implying that Colbert might not quite understand the conversational quality of jazz improvisation, because he seemed to prefer reading scripted questions off of cards. Colbert threw his cards away.In Colbert’s office, their conversation lasted for four hours. “He talked most of the time,” Batiste said. “That’s when I realized that we have very similar visions, except he’s in the comedy lane and I’m a musician. So what we’ve been doing is music and what he’s been doing with his team is trying to create a different perspective on jokes and improv and being a host. It just clicked.” Afterward, he called Saylor. “This situation,” he told him, “it might be the right vibe.”
Late Night Television
Before anything else, make sure you’re desperate to be a TV writer. Is this your dream of dreams? TV writing can be a long slog in which even the greats have lost count of their canceled shows, but they can’t imagine doing anything else. You have to love it, and if you don’t, it is palpable in your screenwriting. If you want to write a book, write a book. If you want to be an actor, act. If you want to be a lawyer, sure, but do you realize how much paperwork it entails? It sounds basic, but follow your actual passion, and the work product will naturally be of a higher quality.
Cenac went on to explain that he found one of Stewart’s bits about Herman Cain offensive, but approaching Stewart with his concerns multiple times only made things worse:
“I was the one black writer there, and so it was this thing where when you’re the “one,” whether you want to or not you wind up speaking for everybody. You speak for all the black people, but you also — at least for me — I always felt like I had to speak for all the minorities, because there’s nobody there speaking for them necessarily if something seems questionable.”
The bit eventually led to a heated altercation between Cenac and Stewart, and while Cenac stayed at the show for a year after that, he told Maron that he was miserable that whole year.
Politico revealed that Jon Stewart had two private meetings with President Obama (in 2011 and 2014). For some (read: Fox News) it proves that Jon Stewart is a ‘propagandist,’ while for others (including the author of the Politico piece) it simply underlines Jon Stewart’s political and cultural significance.
To engage privately with the president in his inner sanctum at two sensitive moments — previously unreported meetings that are listed in the White House visitor logs and confirmed to POLITICO by three former Obama aides — speaks volumes about Stewart and his reach, which goes well beyond the million or so viewers who tune in to “The Daily Show” on most weeknights. … As the White House recognized, Stewart can, at times, be a more potent influence on policy than Obama himself. The 52-year-old funnyman is widely credited with changing how the government treated military veterans and Sept. 11 first responders and for the cancellation of a hyperpartisan CNN talk show. His broadsides against President George W. Bush’s Iraq War and a series of Obama missteps had a searing effect on how Americans thought about Washington.
According to The Hollywood Reporter’s Tim Goodman, The Daily Show without Jon Stewart might not be very successful for the simple reason that… it will be without Jon Stewart. Personally, I know I might watch clips online if they catch my attention, but I have to admit that I will be one of those who’ll move on… Especially now that I’ll have a 40+ -minute show to watch five times a week! How about you guys?
People who “grew up” on or invested a lot of years in Stewart and Stephen Colbert will move on, regardless of the people who replace them. This is already happening with Colbert. Larry Wilmore and The Nightly Show are a different thing entirely and not all of Colbert’s fans hung around. And while it’s true that The Colbert Report was a singular manifestation of one man’s cult of personality, do not kid yourself about the importance of The Daily Show without Stewart. For a lot of people, Stewart is The Daily Show, end of story. …
[T]he next wave coming in for Noah will be younger with different viewing habits. They will not watch the traditional way. They will, at minimum, time-shift. And until they adore Noah the way Stewart’s core base adored him, they will not make a nightly appointment with the show in the way that Comedy Central is used to.
He’s still figuring out what The Daily Show will be, once they hand him the keys. “I have a very vague picture of the show right now,” Noah says. “It’ll be like a face-lift. Because, don’t get it twisted, I’m a big fan of The Daily Show, and that’s what it’s still gonna be. It’s still gonna be The Daily Show. It’s the same way, when Fallon took over from Leno, it’s still The Tonight Show.”
I point out that Fallon has in fact completely changed The Tonight Show since taking over, turning a relatively staid talk show into a viral-video factory, and Noah agrees but says basically: The shift was natural and gradual, and he hopes to do the same thing. “Just the mere fact that I’m gonna be there in the chair changes a whole bunch of the show, you know?”
Awards Season
The same year that members have switched over to online voting, Emmy screeners will now be delivered digitally as well.
The Academy announced a multiyear partnership with Google on Tuesday afternoon, promising delivery of Chromecast devices to members in an effort to dramatically trim the volume of DVD screeners sent out every year. Per the new deal, screeners will be available on a members-only website and streaming app via the tiny USB drives.
The Emmys are now only one month and a half away. Because we’ve had to say goodbye to a significant number of shows this past year, the author argues that “the choice boils down to paying tribute to the old, or ushering in the new.” To which I would say, how about the best? I know, I know: convenient, for someone who wants The Colbert Report to win.
The Emmys forever seem to be grappling with a tension that, in award circles, is virtually unique to television — one that, thanks to a spate of big series finales, seems more sharply focused than usual this year. In the simplest terms, the choice boils down to paying tribute to the old, or ushering in the new? …
Even those programs, however, feel somewhat pallid compared to the twin loss in variety series, where “Late Show With David Letterman” and Jon Stewart’s stint on “The Daily Show” are coming to an end after 22 and 16 years, respectively. “The Colbert Report” makes that latenight exodus a hat trick, although its host, Stephen Colbert, isn’t exactly going away as he prepares to replace Letterman in September.