Mistermoonlight
Administrator
Crystal the Monkey Fan Club
"The dreamers ride against the men of action. Oh see the men of action falling back."--Leonard Cohen
Posts: 8,508
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Post by Mistermoonlight on Apr 10, 2014 21:51:21 GMT -5
After announcing that he would be retiring from hosting "The Late Show" next year it didn't take but a couple of days for CBS to pick his successor: Stephen Colbert, who has won two Peabody awards for his work on "The Colbert Report" on Comedy Central.
To me, there could be no better choice, other than Colbert's mentor, Jon Stewart, of The Daily Show. The choice of Colbert shows a wonderfully edgy move for CBS, a television network that skews towards the older demos in its target audience. Colbert, by comparison is a brilliant and acerbic comedian who has made his bread playing a misguided character who is a conservative on his show The Colbert Report.
See this as a choice by CBS to skew a younger demo and remain relevant to the 18-34s, while sloughing off the aging-not-so-well conservative post-49 demo, not known for having a sense of humor. Mind you, this is only the conservative ones, although they do predominate in older demos.
CBS made an excellent choice in scooping up the remnants of NBC's terrible choices in the late night wars before, in which NBC gave Conan O'Brien the Tonight Show, then took it back, returning Jay Leno to the Tonight Show.
There is a sea change underway in late night tv now, most notably with Jimmy Fallon taking over the Tonight Show recently. I think Dave realized things are changing with so many of the younger talents from SNL moving up to places of prominence: Fallon, Seth Myers, and Jimmy Kimmel. SNL creator Lorne Michaels has moved up from programming not just Saturday Night Live, but all of late night TV on NBC. In that light, choosing Colbert as a successor for Letterman was a brilliant move for CBS. Colbert is brilliant, and it's going to be interesting to see how he takes late night comedy to a new level.
The one thing missing greatly here is the fact it's still a boy's show. I hope that someday the brilliant Samantha Bee of The Daily Show will go up against the guys. She is one of the most talented women in comedy today. I love Chelsea Handler, too, and I think she could do it brilliantly. Still, to me, Samantha Bee is my top candidate for a female host.
Fallon was a brilliant choice for NBC. CBS has just countered with an equally brilliant choice in Colbert.
This is going to be fun ride.
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Post by 3sheets2thewind on Apr 10, 2014 22:04:02 GMT -5
I agree with every thing that you wrote Mr. Pants the only question is who is going to replace Colbert?
I was afraid that they were going to get Jon Stewart to replace Letterman and I think that would have been a mistake as Jon Stewart is perfect on the Daily Show and he seems to be happy with the 1/2 hour 4 days a week with enough time off to do other projects.
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Mistermoonlight
Administrator
Crystal the Monkey Fan Club
"The dreamers ride against the men of action. Oh see the men of action falling back."--Leonard Cohen
Posts: 8,508
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Post by Mistermoonlight on Apr 10, 2014 22:53:17 GMT -5
I agree with every thing that you wrote Mr. Pants the only question is who is going to replace Colbert? I was afraid that they were going to get Jon Stewart to replace Letterman and I think that would have been a mistake as Jon Stewart is perfect on the Daily Show and he seems to be happy with the 1/2 hour 4 days a week with enough time off to do other projects. I agree with you, my friend. There is such a thing as perfection, and Jon Stewart on the Daily Show is exactly that. I worry that in order to be successful on a bigger level, Stewart would have to broaden his comedy like Letterman did. It's not a subtle change, but to me Letterman was never as funny on CBS as he was on NBC. If Stewart were to choose this I think he would hate it, and maybe so would I. Johnny Carson did very broad comedy. He was a master of playing both sides, but he always knew where the joke was, and most importantly, he knew when to step aside and let someone else make it. He learned that from Jack Benny. Of all people, John Stewart has taken that to heart. Being a late night tv show host is not an easy job. You have to be excellent in so many different areas. What Jon and Johnny have in common is an extraordinary ability to interview common people. Carson always read the books by the authors he interviewed, so does Stewart. Even to the point where he is sometimes appropriately speechless, as when he interviewed Malala. Like Carson he has an extrordinary ability to be real on camera. I would hate to see Stewart ever become unfocused from what he does now so brilliantly. His is a voice that we would be lesser for not hearing. He is a funnier Lorne Michaels--one who, like Moses, sees the way comedy is to go, reads the road, and lights the path. He has probably given me more laughs and truth since George Carlin died. Who could ask for anything more? |
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Post by 3sheets2thewind on Apr 11, 2014 3:18:20 GMT -5
I remember when Craig Ferguson left the Daily Show I didn't know who Jon Stewart was, he had big shoes to fill and did it, Jon Stewart had been brilliant and a wonderful replacement.
I don't think that there is any one who can fill the shoes of Colburn.
David Letterman was funnier when he was on NBC.
The one thing that Letterman had over Carson was that he let rock and roll bands on stage where Carson had them all banned from playing on his show.
Leno always bored me he was a terrible interviewer and a bad stand up comic.
Don't even get me started with Joan Rivers I can't stand her, or so called humor she has never made me laugh, she should have told Carson that she was leaving to be the star of her own talk show on another network (FOX) that didn't even last one year, she was going to inherit the late show from him as she was his replacement on Fridays and when he was on vacation.
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Aeryn
Supernatural Fight Club
Posts: 6,545 
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Post by Aeryn on Apr 11, 2014 8:37:39 GMT -5
Actually, that was Craig Kilborn who left the Daily Show.  I like Colbert. I don't like John Stewart. After a couple of years, he got VERY full of himself. Still, I do wish Craig Ferguson would have gotten the job. He's brilliant. |
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Post by 3sheets2thewind on Apr 11, 2014 10:49:56 GMT -5
Actually, that was Craig Kilborn who left the Daily Show. I like Colbert. I don't like John Stewart. After a couple of years, he got VERY full of himself. Still, I do wish Craig Ferguson would have gotten the job. He's brilliant. You are right Craig Kilborn was the original host of the Daily Show. Jon Stewart is great, his humor can only be appreciated by people who follow the news and his show is more fact based then Fox (not the news, they even won a lawsuit that told them that they are allowed to lie to the public) news. Craig Ferguson has one of the funniest shows on TV he is brilliant. John Oliver will be hosting a new show on HBO one day a week, he could have easily stepped into Colbert shoes. |
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Post by AntiArbitrator on Apr 12, 2014 16:19:01 GMT -5
I spent a couple of hours today watching The Colbert Report. I love his irreverent humor. I think the battle for me will be which show will I watch live while the other one records.
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Post by AntiArbitrator on Apr 24, 2014 18:36:32 GMT -5
The Colbert Report makes hearing about politics fun. During our next political debate, I will alternate my views between Colbert and Sharpton.  |
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Post by KyleEl on Apr 25, 2014 16:21:28 GMT -5
I spent a couple of hours today watching The Colbert Report. I love his irreverent humor. I think the battle for me will be which show will I watch live while the other one records. You do know that the host of Letterman's show will be Stephen Colbert, not "Stephen Colbert". |
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Post by AntiArbitrator on Apr 25, 2014 19:47:36 GMT -5
I spent a couple of hours today watching The Colbert Report. I love his irreverent humor. I think the battle for me will be which show will I watch live while the other one records. You do know that the host of Letterman's show will be Stephen Colbert, not "Stephen Colbert". No, I do not understand, unless you are alluding to the pronunciation of his name. Then, I get it. |
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Post by KyleEl on Apr 29, 2014 13:51:33 GMT -5
You do know that the host of Letterman's show will be Stephen Colbert, not "Stephen Colbert". No, I do not understand, unless you are alluding to the pronunciation of his name. Then, I get it. The Comedy Central program is hosted by an exaggerated version of a conservative commentator. Letterman's show will be hosted by the man himself, not some character he is playing. |
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Post by AntiArbitrator on Apr 29, 2014 15:54:05 GMT -5
No, I do not understand, unless you are alluding to the pronunciation of his name. Then, I get it. The Comedy Central program is hosted by an exaggerated version of a conservative commentator. Letterman's show will be hosted by the man himself, not some character he is playing. Yes, I know that. I am looking forward to him bringing his humor to the show. Jimmy Fallon makes a lot of political jokes on his show and I am expecting Colbert to do the same thing. Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using proboards |
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