The Stephen Colbert Show

New York Times article:

'Daily Show' Personality Gets His Own Platform
By JACQUES STEINBERG
 
Published: May 4, 2005
 
Stephen Colbert, who plays a phony correspondent on the fake-news program "The Daily Show," is getting a real promotion.
 
Comedy Central said yesterday that it was giving Mr. Colbert his own show: a half-hour that is expected to follow "The Daily Show" on weeknights and will lampoon those cable-news shows that are dominated by the personality and sensibility of a single host. Think, he said, of Bill O'Reilly and Chris Matthews and Sean Hannity.
 
Where "The Daily Show" and its host, Jon Stewart, generally spoof the headlines of the day (and the anchors and reporters who deliver them), Mr. Colbert's program will send up those hosts who have become household names doing interviews and offering analyses each night on the 24-hour cable news channels. The program, which is expected to begin appearing on Comedy Central as soon as early fall, is being produced by Mr. Stewart's production company, Busboy Productions.
 
It will be called "The Colbert Report" - though, if Mr. Colbert has his way, the announcer will pronounce it with a faux-French accent: The co-BEAR ra-PORE.
 
"In the way 'The Daily Show' is kind of a goof on the structure of news, this is more of a goof on the cult of personality-type shows," Mr. Stewart said in an interview.
 
"It's about a man and his forum," Mr. Stewart said of such shows, including Mr. Colbert's. "And by the way, he's not doing it for himself. He's doing it for the people. As a public service."
 
Mr. Colbert - whose character's furrowed brow, arched eyebrows and dead-serious befuddlement are a staple of "The Daily Show" lineup - said in a separate interview: "I don't know why someone hasn't copied 'The Daily Show.' I, personally, was eager to rip us off."
 
That "The Daily Show" has reached the point that it is considered ripe for a spinoff is something of a milestone for the program and for Comedy Central, which is owned by Viacom. But in moving Mr. Colbert off "The Daily Show" - he is expected to make only intermittent return visits - the network is also risking diluting a recipe that has made it so popular.
 
To that end, Comedy Central is considering ripping an actual page from the cable news networks it so often mocks, and having Mr. Stewart, at the end of his half-hour show, share a split-screen with Mr. Colbert, in what is known in the news business as a "throw" or "toss."
 
"It could be kind of seamless," said Doug Herzog, president of Comedy Central and Spike TV, who presided over the debut of "The Daily Show" in 1996. "It would have the effect of extending 'The Daily Show' to a full hour."
 
Thus far in 2005, "The Daily Show" has been drawing, on average, an estimated 1.3 million viewers each night - 23 percent more than the same period last year, and more than double its viewership during the first four months of 2001, according to Nielsen Media Research. Nearly two-thirds of that audience is the one that advertisers most desire, ages 18 to 49.
 
The show's profile - along with those of Mr. Stewart, Mr. Colbert and supporting players like the comedian Lewis Black - grew strikingly during the 2004 presidential election, not only during the campaign but with the release, by Warner Books in September, of "America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction," a mock history textbook written by Mr. Stewart and his writing staff. The book spent several months atop The New York Times's best-seller list.
 
Mr. Herzog said, "I think the book was a great indication to Jon and his staff that maybe he can reach out beyond 'The Daily Show' and, to use a bad television network executive's term, 'extend the brand.' "
 
A print reporter should have probably known better than to try to extract from Mr. Stewart and Mr. Colbert actual details of what the new show will be.
 
For example, when asked if he planned to be a guest on the program, Mr. Stewart snapped, "I don't stoop to start-ups." A moment later, suspecting that he had been too harsh toward his mentee, Mr. Stewart softened, saying he would consider an appearance "if the show gets its footing."
 
When told of Mr. Stewart's resistance, Mr. Colbert said his boss should consider himself unwelcome.
 
"His shadow is dark enough," Mr. Colbert said. "I don't want to ask the source of darkness for help. I'm not interested in that same liberal claptrap. That meow, meow, meow, ironic detachment."
 
"We're going to deal with truth on my program," Mr. Colbert said. "We're going to catch the world in the headlights of my justice."
 
Mr. Colbert, 40, is best known on "The Daily Show" for his interviews from the road, in which he asks deadpan questions of actual people, some of them newsmakers and others far less well known. He will use that same format on his show, though the interviews will generally be unedited and conducted in a studio setting.
 
He brings to such endeavors an eclectic background. A graduate of the theater program at Northwestern University, he did improvisational comedy for several years for the famed Second City company in Chicago. But for about a month in the mid-1990's, he was a correspondent for "Good Morning America."
 
His character has revealed glimpses of a humble biography on "The Daily Show": he disclosed during the election that his father's occupation had been that of "a turd farmer." Mr. Colbert is, in fact, the youngest of 11 children who grew up in Charleston, S.C. His father was a doctor, his mother a homemaker.
 
As a child, he said, he sought to erase any traces of a Southern accent by imitating the "deep, rich, buttery, confident tones" of such newscasters as John Chancellor and Frank Reynolds. At night, though, he fell asleep listening to comedy records by Bill Cosby, Steve Martin and George Carlin.
 
However unintended, it was the perfect crucible in which to forge the career of a fake newscaster. In each interview, the Colbert character tends to project far more knowledge than he actually has, and is always a little off in his take.
 
His character has also been known to break into song with a guest - as he did during an interview with Senator Bob Graham of Florida, who was goaded by Mr. Colbert into teaching him his campaign jingle.
 
Asked if there would be similar musical interludes on "The Colbert Report," Mr. Colbert said, "That's safe to say."
 
He added, "You can't hide that light under a bushel, to quote Jesus for comic effect."

If you're interested, here's an NPR interview with him from about a year ago.

nice!

edit: Mo Racca has a show on Animal Planet. I've never seen it but the commercials make it look really stupid.

great, Colbert is hysterical. Hope it works out. That little bit about John not wanting to stoop to a start-up kinda caught me off guard, though. I kinda like to imagine him as being pretty humble about his success and fame. I'm hoping it's just the way it reads.

Oh man, that's wicked! We've already had a taste of this show several times with those little mock commercials, haven't we?

Haha...Yes! I was just thinking the other day that Colbert should have his own show. He's such a dreamboat.

Originally posted by Seldoon@May 4 2005, 10:40 AM

great, Colbert is hysterical. Hope it works out. That little bit about John not wanting to stoop to a start-up kinda caught me off guard, though. I kinda like to imagine him as being pretty humble about his success and fame. I'm hoping it's just the way it reads.

Quoted post

The two of them are just fucking around. I mean, you really thought this was serious:

When told of Mr. Stewart's resistance, Mr. Colbert said his boss should consider himself unwelcome.

 

"His shadow is dark enough," Mr. Colbert said. "I don't want to ask the source of darkness for help. I'm not interested in that same liberal claptrap. That meow, meow, meow, ironic detachment."

 

"We're going to deal with truth on my program," Mr. Colbert said. "We're going to catch the world in the headlights of my justice."

?

damn, i was actually thinking about colbert getting his own show last night when I was watching.

it should be sahweet.

I can't wait to see Steven Carell play 'Agent Maxwell Smart'

in the movie remake of Get Smart. I think 'Brick' was the best

thing about the movie Anchorman, no question!

Originally posted by Poop Man Bob+May 4 2005, 02:35 PM--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Poop Man Bob - May 4 2005, 02:35 PM)</div><div class='quotemain'>

Originally posted by Seldoon@May 4 2005, 10:40 AM

great, Colbert is hysterical. Hope it works out. That little bit about John not wanting to stoop to a start-up kinda caught me off guard, though. I kinda like to imagine him as being pretty humble about his success and fame. I'm hoping it's just the way it reads.

Quoted post

 

The two of them are just fucking around. I mean, you really thought this was serious:

When told of Mr. Stewart's resistance, Mr. Colbert said his boss should consider himself unwelcome.

 

"His shadow is dark enough," Mr. Colbert said. "I don't want to ask the source of darkness for help. I'm not interested in that same liberal claptrap. That meow, meow, meow, ironic detachment."

 

"We're going to deal with truth on my program," Mr. Colbert said. "We're going to catch the world in the headlights of my justice."

 

?

Quoted post

[/b]

No, this, particularly the part in bold, is what I was referring to:

<!--QuoteBegin-Poop Man Bob@May 4 2005, 11:10 AM

For example, when asked if he planned to be a guest on the program, Mr. Stewart snapped, "I don't stoop to start-ups." A moment later, suspecting that he had been too harsh toward his mentee, Mr. Stewart softened, saying he would consider an appearance "if the show gets its footing."

The Times indicates that while Stewart is somewhat serious with that comment, Colbert is laughably not. And just from knowing the show and how they act, especially off each other, I didn't think it was the real deal anyhow. But you never know, maybe Stewart is a prick off screen, maybe they don't really get along like it seems (not probable, but not impossible), maybe he really doesn't do start up shows. Too many variables, but the most likely of them is they were, like you said, fuckin around. Ya heard?

On the Texas tip, I can't believe that fuckin Dallas beat Houston. Damn, Houston deserved that win after smashing them in the last 4 minutes, especially after some wack calls by the fag refs.

I think that sentance is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek, Seldoon.