"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" Wins First Sweep in February

[JamesG]

Ratings: Colbert's Late Show Opens Big
by Matt Webb Mitovich
September 9, 2015


CBS’ "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" got off to an unexpectedly strong start on Tuesday, scoring a 4.9 household rating in metered markets, up 172% from the same night a year ago and easily topping all of late-night TV.

It also improved 123% on predecessor David Letterman’s most recent "Late Show" season opener.



"The Late Late Show with James Corden" (1.3) in turn enjoyed a 44 percent bump vs. its most recent first-run outing (on Aug. 18).

Among "Colbert’s" time slot rivals, NBC’s "The Tonight Show" did a 2.4 and ABC’s "Jimmy Kimmel Live" scored a 1.4.



Jimmy Fallon’s "Tonight Show" debut drew a 7.1, while David Letterman’s "Late Show" swan song scored a 9.3.

http://tvline.com/2015/09/09/ratings...show-premiere/

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/..._reviewed.html

Colbert proved he had one big advantage over Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon — he can act and do physical comedy. As Willa Paskin notes, "Colbert’s first episode generally stuck to late-night conventions—the monologue, banter from behind a desk, interviews, and band were all present and accounted for—but it tweaked and teased them in heartening ways, especially for a debut. The show looked and felt like late night, but a more wild, antic, theatrical version, especially once Colbert got off his feet and got behind that desk. PLUS: Colbert opens big based on preliminary ratings, the first night seemed like an amalgamation of every piece of Colbert from his entire career, it was overstuffed, messy and full of promise, seven Colbert Report-isms that made it on the new show, Jeb Bush gave Colbert his breakthrough moment, Bush’s edited-out “bonus” interview might’ve been more interesting than what aired, why was there a nine-minute commercial break between Clooney and Bush?, Colbert proved to be a joyful jester instead of a standup comic, the first night was busy — busy-ness from the heart, the best moments were when Colbert subverted talk shows in general, turns out Colbert wasn’t going to reinvent the talk show, Jimmy Fallon offered congratulations on his show, Colbert’s taping lasted two hours due to technical difficulties, and will viewers warm to an intense, funny, intellectual, sardonic and often serious host?

[mets82]

I have to see if the show is on demand because I missed it. I wanted to see how the show was.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/10/ar...-its-past.html

David Letterman’s Late Show accommodated 461 audience members, while Colbert has enough seats for 370. Colbert also lowered the temperature from 61 to 65 degrees. PLUS: Colbert’s funniest bits are also his strangest, Colbert showed that nobody goes on TV without a mask, watch an annotated version of Colbert’s Late Show jam, Colbert releases George Clooney outtakes, Les Moonves predicts viral success for Colbert, and here are four ways Colbert is different from his late-night colleagues.

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/bas...how-joe-822240

Sure, Colbert has proven to be great at chatting with politicians, tech people and others you’re more likely to find on PBS. But that’s not going to cut it on network TV, if he wants to compete with Jimmy Fallon. "The trouble,” says Tim Goodman, "is that shiny stars drive ratings and they rule the late night world. It’s both refreshing and welcome that Colbert wants to have a more serious list of guests, but realism suggests that’s a better ploy for a basic cable channel than for CBS and its glittering new late night offering.” PLUS: Colbert books Apple CEO Tim Cook for Tuesday, Colbert's Late Show is trading flash for substance, why the White House was forced to lift the embargo on the Joe Biden interview, why Colbert needs more female writers, and is Colbert actually Rosie O’Donnell in reverse?

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http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/t...ing_style.html

It’s not just Colbert’s Late Show celebrity interviews — he’s even having trouble interviewing politicians, which is supposed to be his bread and butter. It’s particularly frustrating, says Justin Peters, because Colbert seems better equipped to do great interviews than other talk show hosts. "Right now,” adds Peters, "Colbert seems visibly stuck between the smart, intellectually curious person he seems to be in real life and the idea of a 'Late Night Talk Show Host,' who puts everyone on his couch and in the audience at ease—in other words, between Stephen Colbert and the new ‘Colbert'—who is also a character, a creation of the Network TV Machine.” PLUS: Colbert has the best late-night show because he didn’t ditch everything from The Colbert Report, and how Colbert’s ratings stand today on his three-month anniversary.

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http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/1133095...-bloom-musical

Colbert keeps having his guests sing with him. On Monday, Tom Hiddleston sang. And last night, Colbert and Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Rachel Bloom sang a duet of Anything Can Be a Musical.

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http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/step...er-1201752457/

CBS This Morning exec producer Chris Licht, who was responsible for that show’s launch, is helping fill a void at the CBS late-night show since Colbert "had essentially been serving as showrunner as well as host,” according to Variety. The Late Show has performed unevenly since its debut, with not all show elements working.

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http://variety.com/2016/tv/news/late...ht-1201756161/

Rather than starting out each show with Colbert on stage for a cold open, the opening credits and a second opening, the show has settled on doing just one opening. Under the old way, Colbert was introduced twice and the guests were also listed twice. PLUS: Did Colbert give Hillary Clinton a “free pass” on last night's pretaped interview?, Colbert reenacts Johnny Depp and Amber Heard's apology to Australia, and House Speaker Paul Ryan will visit Colbert tonight.

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http://www.latimes.com/entertainment...501-story.html

It usually takes a while for late-night shows to find their groove, but Colbert seems to have been eclipsed by everybody from James Corden to John Oliver.

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http://www.cinemablend.com/televisio...Up-143517.html

Late night television on CBS has gone through some serious changes over the past year. Longtime Late Show host David Letterman departed and was replaced by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The show has continued to go through changes since Colbert took the top job in September of 2015, and the latest shake-up is a big one. Executive producer Meredith Bennett has officially left The Late Show. Meredith Bennett’s roles on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert involved business and production, according to Variety. She had previously collaborated with Stephen Colbert during his tenure as host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, and she chose to move to CBS

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According To Stephen Colbert

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/m/5bebf...%2339%3Bt.html

People have kept a close eye on Stephen Colbert over the past year, as he's struggled to find his voice in the late night realm. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been open about reworking the entire tone of the series over the past few months, and largely the tide has seemed to be turning for the late night host. Recently, Stephen Colbert explained why he thinks The Late Show really didn't work in the beginning. Here's what he had to say: People were watching me learn to play a new instrument in public. Now I really don't care and it's so much more fun. I tried so hard to be myself that I kept on fading away. I've surrendered to my natural instincts, and to how I actually feel on a daily

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http://uproxx.com/tv/stephen-colbert-trump-election/

These are the first words I’ve written since the election, which did not go the way I’d hoped. On Wednesday I barely got out of bed. I felt paralyzed by the whole thing. I’ve now hit the bargaining stage of, “Well, Trump seems to like repairing infrastructure. So maybe that could be good? If he focused all his time on that, well, that would keep him preoccupied until 2021.” On Wednesday night I decided to take solace with some comedy. It can help. I had already watched Seth Meyers’ monologue (which was released early online), which was fantastic. It was the perfect tone of speaking to us, his audience, about his own fears, mixed with some comedy about apple picking. I smiled for the first time since Tuesday night.

Stephen Colbert’s Late Show was broadcasting another live show on Wednesday night and I thought watching this could bring more comfort. I am desperate for comfort right now! And The Colbert Report used to bring me comfort. Now, Colbert has already been run through the ringer a bit for his bizarre live election night performance. I kind of want to give him a pass for this because no one saw this coming. Not even President-elect Trump (!!!) saw this coming. So an, let’s say, erratic show might be expected while the election results are processed live.

On Wednesday night I wanted to hear from Colbert. I wanted to hear him tell us things would be okay. Actually, he could have told us things won’t be okay. He could have told me anything. I was ready to listen. After a monologue that was fine, but seemed a little too lighthearted considering the circumstances, it was the time in the show Colbert could have sat behind the desk and just talked to us, his audience, about what has happened. Instead, Colbert decided to do shtick. A large image of God appeared on the ceiling and Colbert had a conversation with God. For the life of me, I can’t figure out the mindset here. “God” appears and says, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” I honestly don’t understand what they are thinking over there.

This is why Colbert’s show is failing. On a night people just wanted to hear from Colbert and have him talk to us like adults about what happened, he punted. What happened to the Colbert who criticized George W. Bush to his face at the Whitehouse Correspondent Dinner? Why does Colbert keep punting? He punted when he had Trump as a guest (Colbert now admits he didn’t do a good job with that interview) and now, when people just wanted to see something real, he punted again. We got shtick. When Colbert drops his guard and gives us something real, he can be passionate and moving. But he does that so infrequently. And last night, more than any other night, called for it. But instead we got shtick.

I’ve been thinking more about why we liked The Colbert Report so much. And to be honest, I’m not sure it would have worked quite as well as it did without Jon Stewart as its lead in. Together, it was a perfect hour of political comedy. Jon Stewart spoke to us as adults about what was happening, pointing out the lunacy and hypocrisy of any given day – then Colbert would skew it even further, almost bringing it full circle. It was a symbiotic relationship. Now, Colbert has a full hour, on network television, and he’s trying to do a watered down version of both. It’s not working and Wednesday night was a huge glaring example of why.

Some people are hurting right now. But we got Colbert talking to a “God” who says, “That’s my name, don’t wear it out.” His show will probably never succeed until he learns how to consistently be himself. People like him, but we rarely see him. No one wants “shtick” right now.

There’s an obscure Bruce Springsteen song called “30 Days Out” that was recorded for the Human Touch album, but only released as a b side to “Leap of Faith.” There’s a line that sticks out to me right now,

That’s us right now. It hasn’t really even started yet, but that thousand miles of hard road is coming. But it would help tremendously to have a viable Stephen Colbert. And from what I saw on Wednesday night, that isn’t happening.

[Babalu]

Originally Posted by Alan Brady's Hair

I've always figured that Colbert was put in place just to make sure the show was reliably progressive until the election was over, and then he'd have to sink or swim on his own. How are the ratings doing?

The rumors today are that the lame Colbert's days at 11:30 are numbered.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...veted-gig.html

[Dale Key]

People like the Carpool Karaoke on youtube, but that doesn't mean Corden's ratings are that great either. I imagine Moonves will keep Colbert because he's a fan.