My pal Vinnie Favale is Vice President of CBS Late Night Programming, East Coast. He sent me this photo of the marquee of the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York which had its official lighting just the other night. Looks like this show is actually going to happen but I'll believe it's definite when my TiVo lets me take a Season Pass for it.
I'm really looking forward to doing this. You probably saw that they released the list of Colbert's first week guests: George Clooney and Jeb Bush on the first show (September 8) followed the rest of the week by SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, Scarlett Johansson, Amy Schumer and Stephen King. These choices suggest to me that Colbert plans to talk to his guests rather than challenge them to games where they crack eggs on their heads.
In the music department, his house band will be spotlighted the first night, followed by rapper Kendrick Lamar, country star Toby Keith and the Paul Simon tribute band, Troubled Waters. I think the Paul Simon tribute band should demonstrate a passive-aggressive attitude towards an Art Garfunkel tribute band and complain that it doesn't get the same recognition as the John Lennon tribute bands.
A press release also promised many surprise cameos on Colbert's first show. I suspect Jon Stewart will not be among them as they'll want to save that "reunion" for some future show where it can be advertised. I do wonder if Jimmy Fallon will do a walk-on as Colbert did on Fallon's first Tonight Show. They were time slot competitors then, too.
I'd really like to have a great late night show in my life. I like Jimmy Fallon but don't like his show. I don't like Jimmy Kimmel and don't like his show. Actually, it strikes me that the writing on Kimmel's show is pretty good when it gets out of "practical joke" mode but I can't stand the host.
One evening recently, I channel-flipped between the two Jimmies and it struck me that both of them were fawning over their guests to the point of practically licking their faces but the key difference between the two men was this: Fallon seems to really and truly believe in the awesome greatness of everyone in his guest chair. Kimmel seems to think everyone is an asshole but the job of talk show host requires you to say what he says. My friends who work on both shows will probably now e-mail to tell me that's not the way either of them really is and they may be right. But it's how they come across to me.
I still haven't made up my mind about James Corden. He fawns a la Fallon but is a much better interviewer. He looks awkward doing the stunts and remote bits the show attempts. When Letterman or even Leno went to strangers' doors and knocked, it seemed in character and that they were in control of the segment and its premise. Corden looks like his producers made him to do it and he's embarrassed. He's gotten a lot of acclaim for musical bits he's done and I think the reason those work is that he seems comfortable doing them.
And I've given up on Conan O'Brien. I really used to like the guy his first ten-or-so years on NBC. His show had very sharp writing and he knew how to play straight for Andy Richter, his guests and various walk-on characters. At some point, it's like his handlers slapped him and said, "No, no! The audiences want to see you. Why are you letting other people be funny?" and he became the guy at the party who won't shut up and tries to make everything be about himself. He talks at his guests instead of to them.
On top of that, all four of these shows have an odd studio vibe to them. It almost feels like the audience is full of paid extras who've been told to act like they're having a good time or they won't get their checks when they leave.
Many years ago, Johnny Carson had one of his many mini-feuds with TV Guide. The magazine didn't much like him — he wasn't cooperative enough, they felt — and he didn't much like them because of things like this. They ran an item that said his show, especially during the monologue portion, occasionally added in canned laughter when the live audience failed to sufficiently guffaw. Carson and some of his employees adamantly denied this…and as far as I know, they weren't doing that.
I don't think anyone has made that accusation against a talk show in years. If anything, the opposite is now true. Studio audiences, aided sometimes by warmup comedians who encourage this attitude, seem to feel it's their job to play the role of a wildly enthusiastic studio audience. They respond to everything like they're part of the show as opposed to being the people for whom the show is performed. (And some talk shows have been known to employ audience wranglers to fill their seats, especially with young, attractive people.) So we now usually have this environment in which every remark is hilarious and every guest is deserving of a standing ovation.
Since I usually don't think that, I find myself increasingly feeling like I'm not part of the audience for some of these programs. I think that's one of the reasons I'm looking forward to Colbert's show. His show on Comedy Central didn't have that feel. The studio audience loved him but it felt to me like they really did and that the laughter was earned, not forced. Of course, I also think Colbert is more talented than anyone else doing a talk show these days so wild applause and laughter will probably not seem phony.