JCC David Letterman announces retirement; Stephen Colbert to replace him!

"Oompa Loompa-Merican". lol

 

"Tough questions" are by definition a form of attack meant to derail someone from their marketing script. And I guess it's true that even when an interviewer launches an attack for its own sake, for the pure joy of being attackful, it still serves the interest of all those who seek to derail someone from their marketing script.

 

That makes me miss Larry King times.

 

Letterman was not exactly nice to certain people. He called out O'Reilly quite a bit and people criticised him for it. This was a first show, he kept it basically friendly.

"Oh you were so close to getting a clap!" lol

 

I'm definitely going to be a regular viewer, this is just too funny! I hadn't laughed that hard in a long, long time. I laughed so hard, in fact, that I woke up my Dad who had been sleeping upstairs!

 

The opening monologue was so-so, as was the Clooney bit & interview. The stuff concerning Trump & Oreos, and the Jeb Bush interview were the highlights as far as I'm concerned. Skipped the music performance at the end, because I never watch those on any network late night show. I'd imagine & hope that this show will get better as more time passes.




Concerning the set, I'm not a fan of that Central Park photo behind the desk... the skyline is too blurry there.

 

I really liked this episode, it was basically visually and tonally Colbert report with the desk setup / timed graphic punchline and everything but I think it does allow Colbert to not always make everything political so they were able to the incredibly goofy but very funny Clooney made up movie sequence. I think I noticed Colbert's temp on Late Night is a bit more upbeat and not as faux-serious as he was as "Stephen Colbert" on Colbert Report. Which is cool, this show should be different-ish. It still does feel more like Colbert Report than not, which is a good thing.

Definitely a tad long-ish, they shoulda moved it to the middle of the show and/or swapped places with the amazing Trump bit. but I loved how damned oddball it is, Colbert is a genre / sword and soccery geek so it was cool to see him put it in the show.

Honestly if this basically just becomes Colbert Report Mark 2, politics turned down about two notches, pop culutre geekery turned up 2 notches, I would be totally okay with that. I do kinda miss the "Stephen Colbert" character, he was so laced with irony it's hard to know when the real guy is genuinely laughing and/or being serious.

 

I was a big fan of The Colbert Report, and my reaction to his LS debut was mixed. I enjoyed the Trump bit, but I agree with the point someone made above that it didn't seem to have as much "content" as some of the TCR political bits. Though, to be fair, TCR also had a lot of bits that were just really silly with no "content," and I love that side of Stephen, so I wouldn't want to see that disappear from the mix of stuff that he does on TLS. I also thought the Clooney interview and fake film bit fell flat, that the Jeb interview was nothing special, and that the amulet/hummus bit wasn't that funny to begin with and went on too long. I usually skip the musical performances of late night shows too, so I liked the fact that Stephen joined in the singing but still wasn't that engaged by it overall.

But I'll keep watching and I think that it will get better, because IMO Stephen is so whip-smart, multi-talented, energetic, and just plain charming that he's bound to find his footing before too long.

 

I don't think the Oreo bit had not substance. Trump said something incredibly stupid about Oreos and Colbert did something incredibly stupid with Oreos. Stupid Oreo binge = stupid Trump saying stuff binge. Trump has about as much substance as binge eating cookies.

 

im surprised trump didn't go on a twitter rant today about him

 

He probably didn't understand the complexities of the bit. "Hey, he's eating Oreos, I don't get it. At least there's more clips of me being fantastic."

 

I didn't recognize anyone in that ending number.

I suck at music.

 

Perhaps I'll watch this while waiting for Graham to come back.

 

There was a point to the Oreo/Trump bit, and I thought it was pretty clearly spelled out: the media indulge Trump because it's easier to focus on mindless buffoonery than to actually attempt to discuss serious political issues. Trump is the reductio ad absurdum of the trend towards public discourse-as-TV-event. It's all junk food, lacking in substance but still strangely compelling, and no one in the media is willing to actually shift things back to real analysis.

Anyway, for what it was, I thought the show was great. The Clooney stuff was weak, but otherwise it was a Report for the masses.

 

I agree with you. I don't think it had "no" substance (just maybe less than some of his CR political bits). I saw the substance as a commentary on how the news media (even the "old guard" network news outlets) can't stop themselves from covering Trump's every (inane) utterance even though politically/intellectually, he's the equivalent of "junk food." And the bit was pretty much the best part of the show for me, so I did enjoy it. I did just find myself wondering if some of Stephen's razor-sharp satire from TCR days will end up being toned down a bit now that he's on CBS (the Jeb interview also contributed to this feeling as well).

Edit:

^Yeah, that's what makes me a little sad (the idea that because it is now "for the masses" that it will lose some of the sharpness I loved on TCR). But obviously it's way too early to judge what kind of show it will be, and I can understand why he was ready for a change after doing his SC character for nearly 10 years. All good things must come to an end!

 

It makes me sad, too. TCR will always be one of my favourite shows, and I don't expect this to ever be as good. However, if he can help make more people critical consumers of their media, that can only be a good thing.

 

Artoo-Dion....is that you? Is that really you? In the Community forum?

Hairtzlickety Vilcommon! That's Germanish for "nice to see you here!"

 

Danke!

 

Bitter!

 

Just saw the second episode. It was great, imo. Colbert definitely looked more comfortable--though that might be because he went back to his old Colbert Report style. The premier had elements of the Report, but the second episode certainly had more of that Report feel to it. And Colbert himself seemed to go back into his old "Stephen Colbert" character, which I think is great.

Plus, IIRC, he even gave mention to the ColbertNation website for extra footage--instead of suggesting the new show's website.

He also explained in the intro that the premier episode suffered from a lot of pacing and technical problems. Apparently he had a bit about George Clooney's Batnipples that got cut, and then their computers crashed and no one at CBS knew if they were going to be able to air the premier. The tech team managed to come up with a fix at the last minute to get the show on the air.

Anyway, I'm glad to see the return of the old Colbert.

 

So, noticed last night: he's so used to playing his old character (a slightly-combative Conservative host) that he's not got a great sense of "normal" interviews yet. It's a bit awkward, but something easily overcome with time and practice.

 

His second night ratings took a plunge, it looks like. He still came out ahead of the other late night shows, but only beat Jimmy Fallon's ratings by like a half percent or something trivial like that.

 

I am having a hard time telling the difference between Colbert and his old Colbert persona.