Word is out that Showtime has either signed Stephen Colbert or is about to sign Stephen Colbert to do live election night coverage for them. Showtime is a wholly-owned subsidiary of CBS Entertainment so that makes a little sense. I'll certainly be watching and —
Oh, hell. I don't subscribe to Showtime in my cable package. Well, I may have to. Will Time-Warner sell me a day pass?
It has also been announced that Colbert will do live shows the nights of the presidential debates. I'm assuming that's if they even happen. I'm also assuming those would be the kind of "live shows" he did during the political conventions when a lot of what was broadcast was pre-taped, including some guest segments because they couldn't get good guests to show up that late at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
This is one of the obstacles to live talk shows. About five years before he left television, it was announced that Johnny Carson would begin doing The Tonight Show live. I was told by someone on the inside — oh, hell, it was Fred DeCordova — that this was someone's idea (not his) about how to add a little more excitement to a program that then was on a slow downward slide in the ratings.
Fred told me that when they started trying to book those shows, they discovered that many of the best guests couldn't — or wouldn't — be there at that hour. In this case, since The Tonight Show was then done on the west coast, this would have meant guests being there from roughly 7:00 PM to 9:30 or a bit later for an 8:35 PM show. When you do a live 11:35 show on the East Coast like Colbert sometimes does, they want you there about 10 PM…maybe a bit earlier if you're going to be involved in a sketch or something besides just the interview. Obviously, real superstars can show up a bit closer to air time and leave before the show's over.
The Carson people decided that what they would gain in energy by doing their show live would be more than canceled out by losing some big guests so they quietly abandoned the plan. As I recall, Jimmy Kimmel Live! was called that because it was originally done live…which since the show aired at 12:05 AM then meant 9:05 PM out here. I dunno if it was because of the guest thing but they moved to taping it at 7 PM and later to late afternoons…but they kept the name.