To the surprise of — well, a lot of people who shouldn't be surprised — CBS has announced a five-year deal with Stephen Colbert to take over as the host of Late Show when David Letterman ambles aside. I suspect this has been in the works for some time and that the network waited 'til now to announce it so they could pretend Dave's decision was unexpected. If Mr. Letterman truly has the gratitude to CBS that he says, he would not have called Les Moonves and said, "Hey, Les! I'm going to go out in a few minutes and announce on my show I'm quitting!" The two of them would have talked about it for a while and figured out the timing that worked best for both sides.
Mr. Carson famously did not give NBC execs any warning that he would retire in one year from The Tonight Show. He went out and announced it at an affiliates meeting, which was his way of saying, "I'm doing this my way and I don't give a damn how it affects anyone else." He was admired in some quarters for this — that Late Shift movie depicted, perhaps not inaccurately, Dave being impressed — but I always thought it was kind of a dickish move. And it had a lot to do with Leno getting that job. If Johnny had told NBC six months earlier a timetable for his retirement, the network could have positioned Letterman as Johnny's successor. I'm not saying they would have — there were other reasons Leno got it — but Johnny's refusal to work with them to jointly plan the handoff made Jay more inevitable.
I think Colbert's a great choice. I assume he'll do the show from New York, probably even from the same theater and with a lot of staffers from The Colbert Report intermingling with some of Dave's, plus new people. This is assuming Colbert doesn't have a burning desire to live in Los Angeles. Yeah, there are more Big Guests to be had out here but the Big Guests only appear when they have something to plug…and when they have something to plug, they make a trip to Manhattan.
I also assume Colbert will abandon his right-wing character or at least limit that guy to occasional appearances. It will be interesting to see if he devotes the remainder of his Colbert Report shows to, in effect, killing off that character or transforming him into the guy we'll see on CBS. I'm also intrigued on the crossover possibilities, between now and then: Stephen visiting Dave's stage to measure for new furniture, Stephen visiting The Daily Show to break it to Jon Stewart that he's leaving, Stephen visiting Jimmy Fallon's show to stir up a rivalry, etc. Colbert's just the kind of guy who could make The Late Night Wars fun.
So let's see what Jon Stewart has to say tonight…and what Colbert says on his own program. And I'm kinda wondering what will be going into that half-hour after The Daily Show when Colbert departs, presumably some months before he takes over Dave's time slot. I suppose John Oliver's new HBO show takes him out of the running. Jason Jones has been doing some real sharp spots on Stewart's show lately and so has his wife, Samantha Bee. Wonder if they're thinking of giving that half-hour to the two of them.