The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015-????)

ITS

his logo looks like the 700 club or something

Seems like it's about half Colbert Report and half typical network late night show. Works for me.

forgot it was tonight

the non colbert report parts were pretty awk though it feels like he had a lot of meetings with very panicky cbs execs who don't know how to function in this strange jimmy fallon world

i know it'll get better but yeesh

turned it off during jeb that was tough to watch

Eh, I thought he handled the parts of the show that he's not been doing for the last 9 years already pretty well. Clooney's not traditionally a great talk show guest (he seems like one on paper, but in reality he's kind of a stiff). Jeb! Bush was as disengaged and awkward as I'd expected he would be, so no surprise there. Stephen may handle the interview segments better when he has guests that better fit what he's going for.

i generally detest Clooney's personality, but he had a fine moment on Letterman once. "...We're doing Ocean's 12.... (big grin) Because Solaris bombed."

I liked the bit where he paid tribute to "the man who has owned that stage for the last 22 years...I'm talking about Biff Henderson".

I remember during that awesome last Tom Waits performance hoping the moment wasn't ruined for Dave because he was handcuffed to George Clooney

It was a good show. The Trump and Jeb bits could've run as is on the Report. I don't get people who immediately write him off because he's on a network now, or act like network comedy is somehow always inherently inferior to cable. I'm seeing that on Twitter about Colbert's show and it's just kind of silly.

Yeah, I mean he's at 11:30 on a broadcast network and going against The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel. CBS isn't going to allow him to go full Colbert with the position he's in. Should they? Yes. But they aren't going to.

I really hope the first half of the show is spent at the desk every night Report-style. If that sticks, the rest is gravy.

If there's one thing I think they should be OK dropping, it's the standing bit at the start.

Unless he continues to spot his turns like that.

Caught the end of this, it was pretty entertaining. Fun music performance at the end. I like the 'new' character.

I did like Clooney's fake movie skits, it kind of felt like something Letterman would have done.

Since all of my reality seems to be on a 20 hour tape delay I'm just watching this now. I like that the band leader plays a melodica.

Hoo boy, second night was a little bit rougher.

Kendrick fucking slayed it though!

Yes and yes.

I just watched Kendrick's performance and holy shit

the sketchy CBS stream i was using blew up just before he came on so i missed it.

It was on the Kendrick thread, I'll repost because it should really be put on every thread (and also every music school's curriculum):

http://pitchfork.com/news/61137-kendrick-lamar-performs-to-pimp-a-butterfly-medley-on-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

that may be a candidate for Is there such thing as a good medley? !

I could not help but contrast that performance against a sixth installment of two dweebs purporting to teach the history of rap.

wow that was nuts

(TV nerdery: Some really nice editing and shot selections throughout, too.)

Yeah, the low-shot from behind Lamar, looking at the ceiling, that one will be used again on this show.

I hope sparingly.

I dunno, they seem pretty proud of that ceiling.

his habit of interrupting guests was cute, or at least made sense, when he was in character as right-wind blowhard "Stephen Colbert"

but it just seems like a nervous habit no. I think Scarlett Johansson actually had to say something like "I was saying..." twice.

the segment w/ clooney was an odd situation where two very smart people, who you'd think would be good talkers, failed to find any way of engaging meaningfully, or even entertainingly, with each other.

i'm guessing he'll look over his performance and course correct. because i doubt too many guests are going to want to come on his show only to be talked over every time colbert thinks he has something clever to add.

i found watching the interview segments a little uncomfortable, in the way that watching any interaction where one person isn't following the "rules" of conversational turns-taking is a little uncomfortable. maybe as a teacher i'm hyper-conscious of this stuff. and it might just be first-week nerves. (lord knows when i'm nervous i tend to talk over people.)

His desk is too big to do interviews there. They need a separate nook with two chairs or something like the Report had. With that desk, the guest feels a mile away.

otm. Set should be more like this:
https://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr52vz6yrp1r2i7nxo1_500.jpg

or this:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/adb03c3fcdb978f528045631357b4729/tumblr_n6rrgrtJyl1td73xio1_400.gif

http://www.blazermediagroup.com/images/susskindBrooks.jpg

he interrupted biden horribly a couple of times

generally enjoying this though

he interrupted biden horribly a couple of times

He did, but he also gave him long periods of time to go full Joe Biden.

Even the interview with the Uber guy was a lot more competent than the one with Elon Musk the night before. I guess there's gonna be up nights and down nights for a while until everyone settles in, but the difference between Wednesday night's show and Thursday night's show was huge.

I'm never gonna see this show (my job requires me to get up at 5:30 AM, so watching late night talk shows would be out of the question even if I wanted to), but the story behind that Uber interview is interesting.

Whoa.

That's great. Has Colbert always been a great human being? I bet he'll write an incredible memoir one day.

he's been really grossly smarmy in interviews, i find it really off putting. intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing. it's bad.

so the CBS computers kept crashing as they were editing Tuesday night, and premiere almost didn't air on time. That woulda been nagl.

all shows take some time to find themselves, sez me who hasn't seen a minute of this

intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing

I'm sure they're all trying to make a point and they want those not familiar with Colbert to see him as an approachable friendly person. But Fallon's got the ass-kissing nice guy market cornered so it'd be better for Colbert to continue playing the smartest guy in the room.

xp That's true, and I'm sure the show will find a nice groove before long.

I think the thing that's making me most uncomfortable about it is the set. There's way too much going on. Catwalks, spiral staircases, nooks and coves and a smaller-than-usual alley between the desk set and the band set where the monologue takes place. It feels claustrophobic and maze-like.

maybe Colbert will be the one to take down Trump. guesting later in sept

he's been really grossly smarmy in interviews, i find it really off putting. intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing. it's bad.

― J0rdan S., Friday, September 11, 2015 10:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i think i get this. like during the jeb interview he said something like "there is a non-zero chance that i would vote for you" and then said nearly the same thing in the thursday night monologue. also maybe a calculated attempt to distance the new character from the old but definitely self-important/off putting.

He also said "On the last show I played a narcissistic conservative, now I just play a narcissist."

^^ yeah cosign all of that. idk if his show is as good as Kimmel's but the monologues and certain interviews are alright. I do wonder how his old character would have translated into the Trump era, if that would've worked or if it's one of those things that's just beyond parody.

It would have worked because Trump would have totally believed he was real.

last night's episode, which brought back a bunch of ex-Daily Show people, was pretty nice

i noticed they only invited people with a certain.... pigment

Stephen left TDS in 2005. Aasif was the first person of color to be a correspondent and he didn't arrive until 2006, plus he's in Los Angeles now (and, according to his recent appearance on WTF, elbows deep in a project).

Trevor Noah appeared (briefly)

they probably sent invites to everyone he worked with, I imagine?

It would've been funny if only, like, Mo Rocca, Rachael Harris, and Vance Degeneres showed up.

Vance! He was really good. I think.

is it weird that mo rocca is one of the first people i think of when i think of 2004 election era TDS (when the show was most relevant)

i can't actually remember anyone other than him and stewart/colbert/carrell

You tend to not forget about guys named "Mo Rocca"

I had no idea John Oliver was around back then. I thought he came on way later.

apparently mo rocca wasn't even on the show by 2004

(i mean he left in 2003, not that he started after 2004)

he fit in pretty seamlessly with everyone else from that era who went on to have as much success as is possible in comedy, i wonder if he's sad

you know I might've had Mo Rocca and young John Oliver confused

pretty much everyone on the Daily Show kinda fit the same mold back then, didn't they?

I had no idea John Oliver was around back then. I thought he came on way later.

He wasn't. He was playing the part of "Steve Carell" last night.

he fit in pretty seamlessly with everyone else from that era who went on to have as much success as is possible in comedy, i wonder if he's sad

he got a gig as a CBS correspondent and had a kid's show on Saturday mornings, so I think he's fine

Oliver apparently joined in 2006 - I thought he was like...2011

he looked about 14 in the clip they showed

gotta say I did love Stewart's "why did age hit me harder than any of you?" quip

Death to America. pic.twitter.com/StY5SgZ3ru

— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) September 18, 2017

may we celebrate Indictmas henceforth every halloween eve :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXO52kWT9g

Jimmy Carter rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQR5G3kvfNQ

returned to a live audience last night. man, his shtick works so much better in front of a crowd.

It's going to be such a shock when John Oliver is once again getting consistently interrupted with whoops and hollers.