Jon Stewart has been making the rounds promoting his directorial debut, Rosewater. During his interviews, he has been asked about Stephen’s move to The Late Show. Jon and Stephen have such a strong professional and personal bond and it constantly shows through. Jon has given his warm opinions of Stephen several times and you will find them in the following interviews.
Huffington Post Live
Roy Sekoff: “Are you bummed that the “Stephen Colbert” character will be no more come December?”
Jon Stewart: “That’s not usually the one I talk to on the phone, so I’m okay. As long as I still get to talk to the regular one, my life doesn’t change a whole lot.”
New York Magazine
You helped launch The Colbert Report. Stephen is going to drop the character when he moves to The Late Show, so what will he bring that people haven’t seen?
A raging drug habit.
Excuse me?
People have no idea. It’s going to be Breaking Colbert.
I will tune in for that.
Stephen’s talent is very apparent to everybody, but if you’d been to his 50th birthday party and you saw the love bomb he was surrounded in — I said to my wife, “I will guarantee you this party spawns a thousand arguments on the drive home.” Everybody got in the car that night with their spouse and it was, “Why don’t you love me like people love Stephen?!” Or, “Why can’t you be a kindhearted and good individual like Stephen Colbert?!” It was one of those magical nights, filled with the warmth and affection of friends and family. I just think viewers are really going to enjoy getting to know Stephen.
That’s strange, because I had heard Colbert’s birthday party was at Scores.
I didn’t say it wasn’t at Scores.
Will he be able to keep doing subversive things like attacking Amazon and Google when he’s on a big mainstream network?
Being on Viacom cable networks is really not that different a universe than CBS late night anymore. Your address matters much less now in the democratized world of Hulu or YouTube. No matter how it’s done, he will be as subversive in different ways.
Rolling Stone
How do you think Colbert will do taking over for Letterman?
He’s going to be tremendous.
Will it work as well with him out of character?
People forget that character is kind of an invention. I’m accustomed to him out of character, so maybe I don’t have as large a leap to go. I mean, the reason why the character worked is that underneath it’s informed by his interests and his abilities. I think that untethered from his character he’ll actually have more room and be able to really deliver in a way that’s going to surprise people.
There’s a lot of competition and hosting a nightly hour-long show is a tough job.
Let’s not be crazy. He has to talk to Amanda Seyfried and then listen to a great band. It’s a pretty good gig. Also, he’s perfectly suited for it. He’s got comedy chops, improv chops, song and dance chops, interview chops. He can elevate the form and bring oxygen to it.
Crave Online
When Stephen goes to “The Late Show,” who is going to warn America about the bear menace?
I just think he’s going to have a larger platform to do so. That’s going to be the beauty of it.
But I thought he wasn’t going to do his persona on “The Late Show.”
You know, there are parts of the actual Stephen that are also afraid of bears. Without his persona, there will still be some of the things that translate.
The Hollywood Reporter
Colbert, who has spent nearly nine years perfecting his conservative blowhard pundit persona on The Colbert Report — the show that follows Daily Show on Comedy Central and also is produced by Stewart — was named to replace David Letterman on CBS’ Late Show.
“I had been on him for years for that,” says Stewart. “I’ve always thought that the long game for him was a show like [Late Show]. He brings elements of Parr and Carson and Kovacs and silliness and song and dance but also real intellectual curiosity that is a wonderful novel combination for that format. I think there’s been a beautiful arc to [Colbert Report]. But it was time.”
Jon Stewart on Stephen Colbert's move to the 'Late Show'
Jon Stewart has been making the rounds promoting his directorial debut, Rosewater. During his interviews, he has been asked about Stephen’s move to The Late Show. Jon and Stephen have such a strong professional and personal bond and it constantly shows through. Jon has given his warm opinions of Stephen several times and you will find them in the following interviews.
Huffington Post Live
Roy Sekoff: “Are you bummed that the “Stephen Colbert” character will be no more come December?”
Jon Stewart: “That’s not usually the one I talk to on the phone, so I’m okay. As long as I still get to talk to the regular one, my life doesn’t change a whole lot.”
New York Magazine
You helped launch The Colbert Report. Stephen is going to drop the character when he moves to The Late Show, so what will he bring that people haven’t seen?
A raging drug habit.
Excuse me?
People have no idea. It’s going to be Breaking Colbert.
I will tune in for that.
Stephen’s talent is very apparent to everybody, but if you’d been to his 50th birthday party and you saw the love bomb he was surrounded in — I said to my wife, “I will guarantee you this party spawns a thousand arguments on the drive home.” Everybody got in the car that night with their spouse and it was, “Why don’t you love me like people love Stephen?!” Or, “Why can’t you be a kindhearted and good individual like Stephen Colbert?!” It was one of those magical nights, filled with the warmth and affection of friends and family. I just think viewers are really going to enjoy getting to know Stephen.
That’s strange, because I had heard Colbert’s birthday party was at Scores.
I didn’t say it wasn’t at Scores.
Will he be able to keep doing subversive things like attacking Amazon and Google when he’s on a big mainstream network?
Being on Viacom cable networks is really not that different a universe than CBS late night anymore. Your address matters much less now in the democratized world of Hulu or YouTube. No matter how it’s done, he will be as subversive in different ways.
Rolling Stone
How do you think Colbert will do taking over for Letterman?
He’s going to be tremendous.
Will it work as well with him out of character?
People forget that character is kind of an invention. I’m accustomed to him out of character, so maybe I don’t have as large a leap to go. I mean, the reason why the character worked is that underneath it’s informed by his interests and his abilities. I think that untethered from his character he’ll actually have more room and be able to really deliver in a way that’s going to surprise people.
There’s a lot of competition and hosting a nightly hour-long show is a tough job.
Let’s not be crazy. He has to talk to Amanda Seyfried and then listen to a great band. It’s a pretty good gig. Also, he’s perfectly suited for it. He’s got comedy chops, improv chops, song and dance chops, interview chops. He can elevate the form and bring oxygen to it.
Crave Online
When Stephen goes to “The Late Show,” who is going to warn America about the bear menace?
I just think he’s going to have a larger platform to do so. That’s going to be the beauty of it.
But I thought he wasn’t going to do his persona on “The Late Show.”
You know, there are parts of the actual Stephen that are also afraid of bears. Without his persona, there will still be some of the things that translate.
The Hollywood Reporter
Colbert, who has spent nearly nine years perfecting his conservative blowhard pundit persona on The Colbert Report — the show that follows Daily Show on Comedy Central and also is produced by Stewart — was named to replace David Letterman on CBS’ Late Show.
“I had been on him for years for that,” says Stewart. “I’ve always thought that the long game for him was a show like [Late Show]. He brings elements of Parr and Carson and Kovacs and silliness and song and dance but also real intellectual curiosity that is a wonderful novel combination for that format. I think there’s been a beautiful arc to [Colbert Report]. But it was time.”