When news stories fall through the cracks, we here at Colbert News Hub find them for a post we call, In The Press.
Continuing with the articles you might have missed in the past couple of months, I must warn you that this May edition is a bit more critical than usual. When Chris Licht was hired as an executive producer it was taken as confirmation that things haven’t been running smoothly behind the scenes, and a bunch of articles were written trying to outline what exactly hasn’t been working with the show. On a brighter note, you’ll also find articles such as the one about Stephen’s image as a “cool Catholic,” about Stephen’s visit at the Spoleto Festival, and interviews with Larry Wilmore and Conan O’Brien.
Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts!
Stephen Colbert
- Rise of the Cool Catholics – Relevant Magazine
In this article, Rev. James Martin credits both Stephen and Pope Francis for improving the image Americans have of Catholicism:
“You can’t underestimate the impact those two people had on the popular conception of the Catholic Church,” he says. “A few years ago, people’s predominant perception of the Catholic Church was sex abuse. Now, when I walk down the street in the collar, people come up to me and say, ‘I love your pope.’ That is a big change.” …
Colbert, on the other hand, “presents a Catholicism that is thoughtful, provocative and even playful,” Martin says. He defies the popular stereotype that to be religious is to check your brain at the door.
Colbert has quoted Scripture on-air and talked in-depth about his Catholic faith in interviews. And he’s also poked good-natured fun at religion.
“The Church is an important part of my life,” Colbert said on the interview program Witness. “I would be crazy if I didn’t make jokes about it.”
“Interestingly, both [Pope Francis and Colbert] sort of mirror Jesus,” Martin says. “One, in his authenticity; the other, in a sense of humor and playfulness.”
“I married a girl from here. I know where to go in Charleston,” Colbert said in a brief interview with me after the concert at the historic Dock Street Theatre.
Actually, Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee both grew up in Charleston and Colbert told me he returns “all the time, all the time.”
The host of CBS’ “The Late Show” then launched into interviewer mode himself, genially asking me: “Where are you from?”
Colbert stressed that he was not attending Spoleto in a working capacity.
“I’m just here as a fan,” he said.
Colbert is known as a big aficionado of classical music. As recently as March, he featured the brass section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on “The Late Show” in a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” directed by the orchestra’s charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
It was about whether they could pull off one of the most intriguing experiments in late-night television history; whether Mr. Colbert, who became a leading voice in American political satire by playing a fictional character on his Comedy Central show — holding forth before a cable congregation of the converted — could succeed as himself in the big broad tent of network television, whose commercial and corporate imperatives can be homogenizing.
CBS and Mr. Moonves have hundreds of millions of dollars riding on the result, not to mention corporate pride. Mr. Colbert has something more personal on the line: his reputation as a comedic actor who used his longtime perch at Comedy Central to show how integrity, grace and wicked intelligence could inject something politically powerful — and powerfully funny — into the late-night lineup of stupid pet tricks and vapid celebrity interviews. …
Things could be worse. Mr. Colbert still places second in overall audience — behind Jimmy Fallon on NBC, and ahead of Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. But Mr. Kimmel has been beating Mr. Colbert among the younger viewers advertisers covet. And as Verne Gay of Newsday wrote, Mr. Colbert is lagging in the new currency of viral videos shared through social media. Beyond that, there is the growing consensus that things just aren’t clicking.
Mr. Moonves has asked Mr. Licht to fix that. Mr. Licht’s biggest challenge will be redirecting a tight and loyal team that came with Mr. Colbert to CBS from Comedy Central, and which is known for having an almost religious devotion to the star. Mr. Colbert signed off on Mr. Licht’s appointment only after an intense three-hour meeting over drinks at the Parker Meridien hotel bar last month. (It was supposed to be secret but they were spotted by national political reporters staying there for the New York primary.) …
Mr. Licht has started by taking over some mechanics of the show that Mr. Colbert was insisting on doing himself, so Mr. Colbert can concentrate on being himself.
Now it’s up to Mr. Colbert to decide who that is — and for CBS to let him.
One of the main (specific) frustrations seems to be with the way the show approaches political comedy. We all know what Stephen and his team are capable of and it’s perplexing to see them do such a diluted version of something they are known to excel at. No one does political satire like the Colbert team. And yet, this election season, The Late Show’s political comedy doesn’t particularly stand out.
Anyway, take a look at the following articles; they raise interesting points!
- The old “Stephen Colbert” is gone for good: “The Late Show” crosses over firmly as host claims his new ground – Salon
In this election cycle, Colbert is caught between the lacerating critique of his ultra-conservative persona and the demands of the late-night talk-show host’s seat of power. And though I trust that Colbert will succeed on “The Late Show”—indeed, he already had, well before Licht came along to make his life easier—there is no longer any doubt, to my mind, that Stephen Colbert, the host of the CBS late night show, can never do the incredible political work that Stephen Colbert, host of “The Colbert Report,” did with stunning, easy skill. …
Colbert is not the type of no-holds-barred host that can eviscerate at close range, though; he needs either the remove of being a different persona (“The Colbert Report”) or being in a different room (Trump). When Colbert interviewed Donald Trump last year, he could barely keep an incredulous grin off of his face. Not exactly straightforward discussion; not nearly the interrogation that Trump so richly deserves. But most importantly, it’s not even close to the level of scrutiny that it appears Colbert himself would like to direct at the GOP presidential frontrunner. Colbert has chosen the role of padded publicity salesman over political sketch-comedian, and in practice, that means walking away from fights he’s perfectly qualified for. …
But though Colbert isn’t doing the same work, he is doing other work—a cross-party bridge-building, based on faith in conversation and understanding and growth. That’s defined his “Late Show” persona from the start. But in this O’Reilly interview—coupled with a new showrunner and a new focus on ratings—it seems like a Rubicon has been crossed, from the old Colbert to the new. It could be great. But sometimes, in the chaos of this election cycle, open-hearted understanding seems like too great of a goal for just one man.
The problem with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is not that it’s a bad show. Really, it has a lot of things going for it: Colbert is as likable and charming as ever, and segments like Big Furry Hat, Wheel Of News, and most of all The Hungry For Power Games are consistently enjoyable. So, what’s the problem? Well, while the show succeeds at being entertaining, it doesn’t have all that much of a purpose. It seems to exist for the sake of existing. It’s as though we could all agree that Stephen Colbert deserves to be on television, and having him take over Letterman’s time slot seemed like a pretty cool idea, so here he is at 11:35 five nights a week, except Colbert and his writers are still struggling with the question of what he’s supposed to do.
Comparing this show to the Colbert Report almost seems unfair — for nine years, that was one of the most in-depth, spot-on pieces of political satire around. Colbert’s subsequent program had a ton of pressure to live up to, and pillorying it because it can’t quite reach that level feels like the byproduct of unrealistic expectations. At the same time, when looking at the two programs, it’s not hard to notice that a lot of what made the Report so great seems to be absent from The Late Show. …
One of the most-talked about aspects of Colbert’s CBS gig was the idea that by dropping the conservative persona that had defined him for nine years, we’d get to see the true Colbert. Instead, the opposite has been the case; without the safety of his character, Colbert has pulled punches on both sides, and hasn’t really given us any real insights into what he actually believes. When we consider that Colbert is a devout Catholic, that he once said there was a “nonzero chance” he’d vote Jeb Bush in a presidential election, and that he once stated the he occasionally agreed with his Report character, part of this might be because he’s actually more conservative than we might think, and that he recognizes that by speaking on his more conservative-friendly stances, he could alienate the left-leaning millennial audience that has embraced him since his time on The Daily Show. But speaking as part of that liberal millennial audience, it would be more interesting to watch Colbert present me with an opinion that I disagree with than continue to hedge his bets every night.
- What Does Stephen Colbert’s Late Show Want to Be? – GQ
The current Colbert almost exists in some sort of uncanny valley—not as consistently exasperated as his old character would have been, yet not quite overwhelmingly gracious enough to make you feel like he’s fully abandoned his old persona. It’s a credit to Colbert that he’s willing to welcome guests like O’Reilly and House Speaker Paul Ryan and not immediately attack them with from-on-high liberalism, but it’s also frustrating to watch him smile and joke around with the same people he so thoroughly skewered not too long ago.
Colbert’s Late Show is still a show deciding what it wants to be. This is mostly fine. After all, the show hasn’t even been on the air for a year yet. But in the backdrop of a ridiculous presidential election—with perhaps the most frightening candidate(s) of the last three decades—Colbert’s new show seems particularly empty, especially given the nature of the new late-night landscape. Yes, maybe it’s strange, in a bigger-picture sense, that we now task our late-night talk show hosts with holding important people accountable. Why is it that a British comedian is the one making us care about net neutrality? But it was Colbert who sharply criticized the media when he hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner during the Bush Administration, only to years later invite Donald Trump—a racist, misogynistic demagogue—on his show to play a game. …
The Late Show doesn’t need to be another news show, no. But it doesn’t need to be another late-night show designed to blow up YouTube the next day. Colbert works hard to distance himself from his old character—which is fair, because clearly, it was a burden he had to carry. But as his new show tries to find its lane, maybe he’d do well to remember why so many of us fell in love with him in the first place.
- How Late-Night TV’s New MVPs Are Reinventing the Talk Show – Rolling Stone
As for Colbert, the newest host in this group, he’s still finding his feet after a year, which seems strange – he’s continuing to tinker with his new role as he figures out how to make use of his appealing sincere side. The funniest moments come when he lets himself slide back into his comfort zone as a brazen political satirist. Colbert the Real Guy is still learning how to live with Colbert the Zany Fictional Character, and they’re occasionally elbowing each other for room. You can see it pains the guy that he pulled the plug on The Colbert Report right before this election turned into the godless killing machine of his former persona’s wildest dreams. When Colbert talks about politics now, he looks like a man who used all his willpower struggling to go gluten-free, then moved next door to a donut shop.
With a similar candor, Ms. Handler stripped bare the homogeneity of late-night TV, where she said a new generation of hosts had brought little innovation to the genre. “There are 10 or 11 guys doing what used to be done by two guys,” she said. “That’s not interesting.”
In particular, Ms. Handler criticized Stephen Colbert, the former star of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” who took over from David Letterman at CBS’s “Late Show” in September.
“Look what’s going on with Stephen Colbert and that show,” she said. “What is that? He’s being himself and he’s not. He didn’t go in and make a different show. He’s just following in the footsteps of someone else.” (A press representative for Mr. Colbert declined to comment.)
- The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’s online engagement is missing one thing: Stephen Colbert – A.V. Club
Our very own Sharilyn Johnson wrote this great article for A.V. Club about The Late Show’s social media strategy—or lack thereof. It’s honestly the best article I’ve read so far about the show’s weak online presence. In the end though, I can’t help but feel like it is a secondary issue, and that if the show itself were more engaging (rather than just asking people to use twitter hashtags during the show, which I personally always dislike), then people would want to share.
Building a dedicated following should’ve been easy. After all, The Late Show inherited a fan base eager to get engaged. For nine years, The Colbert Report viewers gamely ran with every idea Colbert’s right-wing pundit character threw at them, most notably donating more than $1 million to his super PAC. That spirit of collaboration should be at the heart of The Late Show’s approach to social media. Instead, it keeps viewers at arm’s length, a significant misstep in an era when audiences expect to have their voices heard. …
Everything we’ve seen of Colbert’s online presence suggests that the show launched without an informed social media plan. The Late Show’s senior staff all came over from The Colbert Report, where Comedy Central handled most of the online media. Producers may not have realized how much strategizing was necessary. In January, the show finally began live tweeting each episode. It’s considered a best practice in television because it creates a sense of community among real-time viewers, and makes non-viewers feel like they’re missing something incredible. …
It’s not that The Late Show isn’t capable of being real. Up until September’s premiere, the show was on the right track with Colbert-centric YouTube sketches and Instagram posts, and candid conversations via the Late Show Podcast. Colbert chatted with staff members about their personal histories, comedy bits that didn’t make the cut, and how anxious they were to hit the air. Whether intentional or not, the show endeared itself to viewers before it even premiered. That podcast stopped in August, but new episodes started appearing in April in the form of parody Game Of Thrones recaps. What was once an effective method of bringing its audience into the fold is now a dumping ground for minute-long bits of unremarkable comedy (which, again, don’t star Colbert).
- CBS Seeks Sitcom Success After ‘Big Bang’ – The New York Times
The TV upfronts is an event where networks present their programming for the upcoming season to advertisers. While Stephen was front and center at last year’s CBS presentation, this year the spotlight was on James Corden. With recent reports of “growing pains” at The Late Show and the hiring of a new showrunner, the shift raised some eyebrows:
JOHN: … So, back to Wednesday’s upfront presentation for ad buyers: Their “late late” man James Corden performed first Thursday. As Alexander Hamilton. Stephen Colbert came on later for a quick routine. They really do love Mr. Corden, don’t they?
MICHAEL: It was hard not to read into the order of performances, and the disparate levels of exposure they got, although Mr. Colbert did have to get back to his studio in time to tape his show. But between the “Late Show’s” growing pains and Mr. Moonves’s effusive praise for Mr. Corden, it seemed clear which host is the current toast of Tiffany.
JOHN: Then again, Mr. Corden is an actor, and he can sing. He’s also hosting the Tonys (on CBS), so the “Hamilton” tie-in for him specifically is a no brainer.
It’s easy to blame The Late Show’s 0/9 streak as an unfortunate reflection of the literary community as a whole. After all, the show relies on booking celebrities and it’s not Stephen Colbert’s fault if more people have heard of George Saunders than Lauren Groff (whose Fates And Furies President Obama called his favorite book of the year.) And how could Stephen Colbert be expected to want to interview a nobody like Margaret Atwood or Judy Blume or Toni Morrison or Miranda July, all of whom had new works of fiction in 2015? …
Before the show’s premiere, Colbert wrote a piece for Glamour magazine with the headline: “Stephen Colbert Shares Why He Thinks Women Should Be in Charge of Everything.” In the essay, he emphasizes his commitment to women: “Point is, I’m here for you, and that means I’m going to do my best to create a Late Show that not only appeals to women but also celebrates their voices.” That proclamation caused a few clenched jaws a few weeks later when it was revealed that his writing staff was comprised of 17 men and two women.
When Stephen Colbert went out of his way to declare that The Late Show would be different in its commitment to women in the notoriously male landscape of late night, it stings even harder to see him use his platform to promote literature in the laziest way possible: interviewing Serious Literary Novelists that look exactly like most people assume Serious Literary Novelists have always looked.
Late Night
[I]t’s probably too easy to say that mocking a candidate for whom 46 percent of the country plans to vote is causing viewership numbers to sag. “But there certainly hasn’t been the Trump bump you might have expected,” Thompson said.
Russel Peterson, an American studies professor at the University of Iowa who has written a book about politics in late-night comedy, said hosts who have previously characterized Trump — and politics, in general — as farcical can’t simply pivot to hot takes and command instant respect. If this is the new direction, Peterson is all for it; he considers most late-night political comedy pretty shallow.
But he suggested it might take a while for viewers to buy in.
“If you’ve just been saying, ‘Well, this is stupid, we can’t take this seriously, this is a clown show,’ then you don’t have a leg to stand on when something like [Trump] gains traction,” Peterson said. “You’re not approaching it from a critical standpoint; you’re approaching it from a dismissive one.
“Because we don’t have an established person who is able to approach it from a critical standpoint, I think we’re missing that voice and that response right now.”
“Stephen’s was the bravest,” Mr. Wilmore told me as he looked out from the stage at the ballroom. He was referring to the seminal performance that Stephen Colbert gave in 2006. Playing his now-retired Comedy Central character, an egotistic conservative talk show host, Mr. Colbert mockingly defended the Iraq war and the Washington press corps’ coverage of it.
The act, typical of his show, wilted inside the hall. But it was a hit out in the world because it tapped the growing perception that a too-cozy relationship between journalists and government officials produced credulous reporting that helped start a war under false pretenses. It was the perfect pairing of a comedian and the moment.
Mr. Wilmore, whose “Nightly Show” occupies Mr. Colbert’s old 11:30 time slot on Comedy Central, knew he was part of a similar pairing, “one of those accidents of timing,” he said. Yes, he was a leading black comedian performing at the last correspondents’ dinner for the nation’s first black president. But his appearance was also coming during a national conversation about race and law enforcement; race and the news media — including at The New York Times — and race and economic injustice. Mr. Wilmore has branded this year’s political campaign “The Un-blackening” of the White House. …
He hinted at an inner tension between going for a big political statement and going for laughs. “That’s why I say Stephen did the bravest thing I’ve ever seen, you know?” he told me. “Because you want to go and have a good time, get laughs and have everybody say, ‘Yeah, you killed.’”
- Jon Stewart Hopes to Have HBO Project Ready By September – Variety
lt’s several months now since HBO announced that Jon Stewart signed on to produce short-form digital content. We still don’t have a lot of details about it, but Jon gave a few hints during his interview with David Axelrod.
“I’m not restless,” Stewart said. “When you are in that soup it is very hard not to begin to think that the world functions on that currency.” He hopes to release his new project, a series of videos for HBO, in September, but isn’t making any promises.
“I’m not going to be on television,” Stewart said. “We are working on technology and animation to do interesting little small bits. I’d love to have it ready by September but not necessarily for the election. The October surprise in this election is not a two-minute cartoon that I’m going to release.”
Do you watch your competition?
I don’t. I never have. It’s the least relaxing thing in the world to me. I’m either thinking, “Oh, good luck with that guest! Let’s see how you do here, pal.” Or I’ll think, “Okay, that it isn’t for me, but good for them.”
Bits like “Carpool Karaoke” or “Lip-Sync Battle” just aren’t on-brand for you.
No. I want to be a good monologist. I want to be a good improviser. I want to be a good comedy editor. I want to be good with the audience and make them a character. I want to be a good interviewer.
It’s a skill that’s becoming increasingly more difficult to pull off and rare in late night.
Yes. I think it’s an art. It’s what I learned from studying Johnny Carson. You look back at his body of work and there were so many organic moments. When I think about moments I’ve had that have done well, they’re also the organic moments. Those that weren’t planned. For example, I didn’t know that the woman teaching me Korean would be that uptight about me trying to get her to rub my nipple with the stick. I’m just trying to have as many of those moments as I can before I’m put to sleep. Before they put me down.
- Jimmy Kimmel Renews ABC Deal for Three Years – Variety
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has has renewed his deal with ABC for an additional three years. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced the deal from the stage at the network’s upront presentation in New York.
The new agreement extends the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host’s contract with the network through fall, 2019.
Kimmel is in his 14th season hosting ABC’s late-night comedy talk show. He is also set to host the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards Sept. 18. It will be his second time hosting the awards show.
The Television Academy is making a tweak to this year’s Emmy ballots: randomizing how each category is presented alphabetically, Variety has learned.
The voting site will evenly show entries for a given category from A-to-Z or Z-to-A for each log-in. The order will be random, meaning that when a member logs in to vote in a given category, say comedy actor, the list will be presented A-to-Z, but when they select another category, say drama series, the list could be presented Z-to-A.
The move is in response to feedback from last year’s nominations, which saw several high-profile omissions fall in the latter half of the alphabet.
Ratings
| Week |
Status |
18-49 Demo Rating |
Demo Ranking |
Overall viewers (millions) |
Overall Ranking |
| May 2 – 6 |
New Episodes |
0.51/3 |
#2 |
2.57 |
#2 |
| May 9 – 13 |
New Episodes |
0.48/3 |
#2 |
2.45 |
#2 |
| May 16 – 20 |
New Episodes |
0.44/2 |
#2 tie with Kimmel |
2.31 |
#2 |
| May 23 – 27 |
New Episodes |
0.42/2 |
#3 |
2.07 |
#3 |
In the Press – May 2016
Continuing with the articles you might have missed in the past couple of months, I must warn you that this May edition is a bit more critical than usual. When Chris Licht was hired as an executive producer it was taken as confirmation that things haven’t been running smoothly behind the scenes, and a bunch of articles were written trying to outline what exactly hasn’t been working with the show. On a brighter note, you’ll also find articles such as the one about Stephen’s image as a “cool Catholic,” about Stephen’s visit at the Spoleto Festival, and interviews with Larry Wilmore and Conan O’Brien.
Don’t hesitate to share your thoughts!
Stephen Colbert
In this article, Rev. James Martin credits both Stephen and Pope Francis for improving the image Americans have of Catholicism:
“You can’t underestimate the impact those two people had on the popular conception of the Catholic Church,” he says. “A few years ago, people’s predominant perception of the Catholic Church was sex abuse. Now, when I walk down the street in the collar, people come up to me and say, ‘I love your pope.’ That is a big change.” …
Colbert, on the other hand, “presents a Catholicism that is thoughtful, provocative and even playful,” Martin says. He defies the popular stereotype that to be religious is to check your brain at the door.
Colbert has quoted Scripture on-air and talked in-depth about his Catholic faith in interviews. And he’s also poked good-natured fun at religion.
“The Church is an important part of my life,” Colbert said on the interview program Witness. “I would be crazy if I didn’t make jokes about it.”
“Interestingly, both [Pope Francis and Colbert] sort of mirror Jesus,” Martin says. “One, in his authenticity; the other, in a sense of humor and playfulness.”
“I married a girl from here. I know where to go in Charleston,” Colbert said in a brief interview with me after the concert at the historic Dock Street Theatre.
Actually, Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee both grew up in Charleston and Colbert told me he returns “all the time, all the time.”
The host of CBS’ “The Late Show” then launched into interviewer mode himself, genially asking me: “Where are you from?”
Colbert stressed that he was not attending Spoleto in a working capacity.
“I’m just here as a fan,” he said.
Colbert is known as a big aficionado of classical music. As recently as March, he featured the brass section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic on “The Late Show” in a performance of Aaron Copland’s “Fanfare for the Common Man,” directed by the orchestra’s charismatic conductor Gustavo Dudamel.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
It was about whether they could pull off one of the most intriguing experiments in late-night television history; whether Mr. Colbert, who became a leading voice in American political satire by playing a fictional character on his Comedy Central show — holding forth before a cable congregation of the converted — could succeed as himself in the big broad tent of network television, whose commercial and corporate imperatives can be homogenizing.
CBS and Mr. Moonves have hundreds of millions of dollars riding on the result, not to mention corporate pride. Mr. Colbert has something more personal on the line: his reputation as a comedic actor who used his longtime perch at Comedy Central to show how integrity, grace and wicked intelligence could inject something politically powerful — and powerfully funny — into the late-night lineup of stupid pet tricks and vapid celebrity interviews. …
Things could be worse. Mr. Colbert still places second in overall audience — behind Jimmy Fallon on NBC, and ahead of Jimmy Kimmel on ABC. But Mr. Kimmel has been beating Mr. Colbert among the younger viewers advertisers covet. And as Verne Gay of Newsday wrote, Mr. Colbert is lagging in the new currency of viral videos shared through social media. Beyond that, there is the growing consensus that things just aren’t clicking.
Mr. Moonves has asked Mr. Licht to fix that. Mr. Licht’s biggest challenge will be redirecting a tight and loyal team that came with Mr. Colbert to CBS from Comedy Central, and which is known for having an almost religious devotion to the star. Mr. Colbert signed off on Mr. Licht’s appointment only after an intense three-hour meeting over drinks at the Parker Meridien hotel bar last month. (It was supposed to be secret but they were spotted by national political reporters staying there for the New York primary.) …
Mr. Licht has started by taking over some mechanics of the show that Mr. Colbert was insisting on doing himself, so Mr. Colbert can concentrate on being himself.
Now it’s up to Mr. Colbert to decide who that is — and for CBS to let him.
One of the main (specific) frustrations seems to be with the way the show approaches political comedy. We all know what Stephen and his team are capable of and it’s perplexing to see them do such a diluted version of something they are known to excel at. No one does political satire like the Colbert team. And yet, this election season, The Late Show’s political comedy doesn’t particularly stand out.- The old “Stephen Colbert” is gone for good: “The Late Show” crosses over firmly as host claims his new ground – Salon
Anyway, take a look at the following articles; they raise interesting points!
In this election cycle, Colbert is caught between the lacerating critique of his ultra-conservative persona and the demands of the late-night talk-show host’s seat of power. And though I trust that Colbert will succeed on “The Late Show”—indeed, he already had, well before Licht came along to make his life easier—there is no longer any doubt, to my mind, that Stephen Colbert, the host of the CBS late night show, can never do the incredible political work that Stephen Colbert, host of “The Colbert Report,” did with stunning, easy skill. …
Colbert is not the type of no-holds-barred host that can eviscerate at close range, though; he needs either the remove of being a different persona (“The Colbert Report”) or being in a different room (Trump). When Colbert interviewed Donald Trump last year, he could barely keep an incredulous grin off of his face. Not exactly straightforward discussion; not nearly the interrogation that Trump so richly deserves. But most importantly, it’s not even close to the level of scrutiny that it appears Colbert himself would like to direct at the GOP presidential frontrunner. Colbert has chosen the role of padded publicity salesman over political sketch-comedian, and in practice, that means walking away from fights he’s perfectly qualified for. …
But though Colbert isn’t doing the same work, he is doing other work—a cross-party bridge-building, based on faith in conversation and understanding and growth. That’s defined his “Late Show” persona from the start. But in this O’Reilly interview—coupled with a new showrunner and a new focus on ratings—it seems like a Rubicon has been crossed, from the old Colbert to the new. It could be great. But sometimes, in the chaos of this election cycle, open-hearted understanding seems like too great of a goal for just one man.
The problem with The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is not that it’s a bad show. Really, it has a lot of things going for it: Colbert is as likable and charming as ever, and segments like Big Furry Hat, Wheel Of News, and most of all The Hungry For Power Games are consistently enjoyable. So, what’s the problem? Well, while the show succeeds at being entertaining, it doesn’t have all that much of a purpose. It seems to exist for the sake of existing. It’s as though we could all agree that Stephen Colbert deserves to be on television, and having him take over Letterman’s time slot seemed like a pretty cool idea, so here he is at 11:35 five nights a week, except Colbert and his writers are still struggling with the question of what he’s supposed to do.
Comparing this show to the Colbert Report almost seems unfair — for nine years, that was one of the most in-depth, spot-on pieces of political satire around. Colbert’s subsequent program had a ton of pressure to live up to, and pillorying it because it can’t quite reach that level feels like the byproduct of unrealistic expectations. At the same time, when looking at the two programs, it’s not hard to notice that a lot of what made the Report so great seems to be absent from The Late Show. …
One of the most-talked about aspects of Colbert’s CBS gig was the idea that by dropping the conservative persona that had defined him for nine years, we’d get to see the true Colbert. Instead, the opposite has been the case; without the safety of his character, Colbert has pulled punches on both sides, and hasn’t really given us any real insights into what he actually believes. When we consider that Colbert is a devout Catholic, that he once said there was a “nonzero chance” he’d vote Jeb Bush in a presidential election, and that he once stated the he occasionally agreed with his Report character, part of this might be because he’s actually more conservative than we might think, and that he recognizes that by speaking on his more conservative-friendly stances, he could alienate the left-leaning millennial audience that has embraced him since his time on The Daily Show. But speaking as part of that liberal millennial audience, it would be more interesting to watch Colbert present me with an opinion that I disagree with than continue to hedge his bets every night.
The current Colbert almost exists in some sort of uncanny valley—not as consistently exasperated as his old character would have been, yet not quite overwhelmingly gracious enough to make you feel like he’s fully abandoned his old persona. It’s a credit to Colbert that he’s willing to welcome guests like O’Reilly and House Speaker Paul Ryan and not immediately attack them with from-on-high liberalism, but it’s also frustrating to watch him smile and joke around with the same people he so thoroughly skewered not too long ago.
Colbert’s Late Show is still a show deciding what it wants to be. This is mostly fine. After all, the show hasn’t even been on the air for a year yet. But in the backdrop of a ridiculous presidential election—with perhaps the most frightening candidate(s) of the last three decades—Colbert’s new show seems particularly empty, especially given the nature of the new late-night landscape. Yes, maybe it’s strange, in a bigger-picture sense, that we now task our late-night talk show hosts with holding important people accountable. Why is it that a British comedian is the one making us care about net neutrality? But it was Colbert who sharply criticized the media when he hosted the White House Correspondents Dinner during the Bush Administration, only to years later invite Donald Trump—a racist, misogynistic demagogue—on his show to play a game. …
The Late Show doesn’t need to be another news show, no. But it doesn’t need to be another late-night show designed to blow up YouTube the next day. Colbert works hard to distance himself from his old character—which is fair, because clearly, it was a burden he had to carry. But as his new show tries to find its lane, maybe he’d do well to remember why so many of us fell in love with him in the first place.
As for Colbert, the newest host in this group, he’s still finding his feet after a year, which seems strange – he’s continuing to tinker with his new role as he figures out how to make use of his appealing sincere side. The funniest moments come when he lets himself slide back into his comfort zone as a brazen political satirist. Colbert the Real Guy is still learning how to live with Colbert the Zany Fictional Character, and they’re occasionally elbowing each other for room. You can see it pains the guy that he pulled the plug on The Colbert Report right before this election turned into the godless killing machine of his former persona’s wildest dreams. When Colbert talks about politics now, he looks like a man who used all his willpower struggling to go gluten-free, then moved next door to a donut shop.
With a similar candor, Ms. Handler stripped bare the homogeneity of late-night TV, where she said a new generation of hosts had brought little innovation to the genre. “There are 10 or 11 guys doing what used to be done by two guys,” she said. “That’s not interesting.”
In particular, Ms. Handler criticized Stephen Colbert, the former star of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” who took over from David Letterman at CBS’s “Late Show” in September.
“Look what’s going on with Stephen Colbert and that show,” she said. “What is that? He’s being himself and he’s not. He didn’t go in and make a different show. He’s just following in the footsteps of someone else.” (A press representative for Mr. Colbert declined to comment.)
Our very own Sharilyn Johnson wrote this great article for A.V. Club about The Late Show’s social media strategy—or lack thereof. It’s honestly the best article I’ve read so far about the show’s weak online presence. In the end though, I can’t help but feel like it is a secondary issue, and that if the show itself were more engaging (rather than just asking people to use twitter hashtags during the show, which I personally always dislike), then people would want to share.
Building a dedicated following should’ve been easy. After all, The Late Show inherited a fan base eager to get engaged. For nine years, The Colbert Report viewers gamely ran with every idea Colbert’s right-wing pundit character threw at them, most notably donating more than $1 million to his super PAC. That spirit of collaboration should be at the heart of The Late Show’s approach to social media. Instead, it keeps viewers at arm’s length, a significant misstep in an era when audiences expect to have their voices heard. …
Everything we’ve seen of Colbert’s online presence suggests that the show launched without an informed social media plan. The Late Show’s senior staff all came over from The Colbert Report, where Comedy Central handled most of the online media. Producers may not have realized how much strategizing was necessary. In January, the show finally began live tweeting each episode. It’s considered a best practice in television because it creates a sense of community among real-time viewers, and makes non-viewers feel like they’re missing something incredible. …
It’s not that The Late Show isn’t capable of being real. Up until September’s premiere, the show was on the right track with Colbert-centric YouTube sketches and Instagram posts, and candid conversations via the Late Show Podcast. Colbert chatted with staff members about their personal histories, comedy bits that didn’t make the cut, and how anxious they were to hit the air. Whether intentional or not, the show endeared itself to viewers before it even premiered. That podcast stopped in August, but new episodes started appearing in April in the form of parody Game Of Thrones recaps. What was once an effective method of bringing its audience into the fold is now a dumping ground for minute-long bits of unremarkable comedy (which, again, don’t star Colbert).
The TV upfronts is an event where networks present their programming for the upcoming season to advertisers. While Stephen was front and center at last year’s CBS presentation, this year the spotlight was on James Corden. With recent reports of “growing pains” at The Late Show and the hiring of a new showrunner, the shift raised some eyebrows:
JOHN: … So, back to Wednesday’s upfront presentation for ad buyers: Their “late late” man James Corden performed first Thursday. As Alexander Hamilton. Stephen Colbert came on later for a quick routine. They really do love Mr. Corden, don’t they?
MICHAEL: It was hard not to read into the order of performances, and the disparate levels of exposure they got, although Mr. Colbert did have to get back to his studio in time to tape his show. But between the “Late Show’s” growing pains and Mr. Moonves’s effusive praise for Mr. Corden, it seemed clear which host is the current toast of Tiffany.
JOHN: Then again, Mr. Corden is an actor, and he can sing. He’s also hosting the Tonys (on CBS), so the “Hamilton” tie-in for him specifically is a no brainer.
It’s easy to blame The Late Show’s 0/9 streak as an unfortunate reflection of the literary community as a whole. After all, the show relies on booking celebrities and it’s not Stephen Colbert’s fault if more people have heard of George Saunders than Lauren Groff (whose Fates And Furies President Obama called his favorite book of the year.) And how could Stephen Colbert be expected to want to interview a nobody like Margaret Atwood or Judy Blume or Toni Morrison or Miranda July, all of whom had new works of fiction in 2015? …
Before the show’s premiere, Colbert wrote a piece for Glamour magazine with the headline: “Stephen Colbert Shares Why He Thinks Women Should Be in Charge of Everything.” In the essay, he emphasizes his commitment to women: “Point is, I’m here for you, and that means I’m going to do my best to create a Late Show that not only appeals to women but also celebrates their voices.” That proclamation caused a few clenched jaws a few weeks later when it was revealed that his writing staff was comprised of 17 men and two women.
When Stephen Colbert went out of his way to declare that The Late Show would be different in its commitment to women in the notoriously male landscape of late night, it stings even harder to see him use his platform to promote literature in the laziest way possible: interviewing Serious Literary Novelists that look exactly like most people assume Serious Literary Novelists have always looked.
Late Night
[I]t’s probably too easy to say that mocking a candidate for whom 46 percent of the country plans to vote is causing viewership numbers to sag. “But there certainly hasn’t been the Trump bump you might have expected,” Thompson said.
Russel Peterson, an American studies professor at the University of Iowa who has written a book about politics in late-night comedy, said hosts who have previously characterized Trump — and politics, in general — as farcical can’t simply pivot to hot takes and command instant respect. If this is the new direction, Peterson is all for it; he considers most late-night political comedy pretty shallow.
But he suggested it might take a while for viewers to buy in.
“If you’ve just been saying, ‘Well, this is stupid, we can’t take this seriously, this is a clown show,’ then you don’t have a leg to stand on when something like [Trump] gains traction,” Peterson said. “You’re not approaching it from a critical standpoint; you’re approaching it from a dismissive one.
“Because we don’t have an established person who is able to approach it from a critical standpoint, I think we’re missing that voice and that response right now.”
“Stephen’s was the bravest,” Mr. Wilmore told me as he looked out from the stage at the ballroom. He was referring to the seminal performance that Stephen Colbert gave in 2006. Playing his now-retired Comedy Central character, an egotistic conservative talk show host, Mr. Colbert mockingly defended the Iraq war and the Washington press corps’ coverage of it.
The act, typical of his show, wilted inside the hall. But it was a hit out in the world because it tapped the growing perception that a too-cozy relationship between journalists and government officials produced credulous reporting that helped start a war under false pretenses. It was the perfect pairing of a comedian and the moment.
Mr. Wilmore, whose “Nightly Show” occupies Mr. Colbert’s old 11:30 time slot on Comedy Central, knew he was part of a similar pairing, “one of those accidents of timing,” he said. Yes, he was a leading black comedian performing at the last correspondents’ dinner for the nation’s first black president. But his appearance was also coming during a national conversation about race and law enforcement; race and the news media — including at The New York Times — and race and economic injustice. Mr. Wilmore has branded this year’s political campaign “The Un-blackening” of the White House. …
He hinted at an inner tension between going for a big political statement and going for laughs. “That’s why I say Stephen did the bravest thing I’ve ever seen, you know?” he told me. “Because you want to go and have a good time, get laughs and have everybody say, ‘Yeah, you killed.’”
lt’s several months now since HBO announced that Jon Stewart signed on to produce short-form digital content. We still don’t have a lot of details about it, but Jon gave a few hints during his interview with David Axelrod.
“I’m not restless,” Stewart said. “When you are in that soup it is very hard not to begin to think that the world functions on that currency.” He hopes to release his new project, a series of videos for HBO, in September, but isn’t making any promises.
“I’m not going to be on television,” Stewart said. “We are working on technology and animation to do interesting little small bits. I’d love to have it ready by September but not necessarily for the election. The October surprise in this election is not a two-minute cartoon that I’m going to release.”
Do you watch your competition?
I don’t. I never have. It’s the least relaxing thing in the world to me. I’m either thinking, “Oh, good luck with that guest! Let’s see how you do here, pal.” Or I’ll think, “Okay, that it isn’t for me, but good for them.”
Bits like “Carpool Karaoke” or “Lip-Sync Battle” just aren’t on-brand for you.
No. I want to be a good monologist. I want to be a good improviser. I want to be a good comedy editor. I want to be good with the audience and make them a character. I want to be a good interviewer.
It’s a skill that’s becoming increasingly more difficult to pull off and rare in late night.
Yes. I think it’s an art. It’s what I learned from studying Johnny Carson. You look back at his body of work and there were so many organic moments. When I think about moments I’ve had that have done well, they’re also the organic moments. Those that weren’t planned. For example, I didn’t know that the woman teaching me Korean would be that uptight about me trying to get her to rub my nipple with the stick. I’m just trying to have as many of those moments as I can before I’m put to sleep. Before they put me down.
Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel has has renewed his deal with ABC for an additional three years. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey announced the deal from the stage at the network’s upront presentation in New York.
The new agreement extends the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” host’s contract with the network through fall, 2019.
Kimmel is in his 14th season hosting ABC’s late-night comedy talk show. He is also set to host the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards Sept. 18. It will be his second time hosting the awards show.
The Television Academy is making a tweak to this year’s Emmy ballots: randomizing how each category is presented alphabetically, Variety has learned.
The voting site will evenly show entries for a given category from A-to-Z or Z-to-A for each log-in. The order will be random, meaning that when a member logs in to vote in a given category, say comedy actor, the list will be presented A-to-Z, but when they select another category, say drama series, the list could be presented Z-to-A.
The move is in response to feedback from last year’s nominations, which saw several high-profile omissions fall in the latter half of the alphabet.
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