History of Late Night TV

Stephen Colbert

 

In September of 2015, Stephen Colbert hosted his first episode of The Late Show, replacing David Letterman. New York's  Ed Sullivan Theatre was renovated for the new host. His first guests were George Clooney and presidential candidate Jeb Bush. Colbert does a mix politics and comedy, just as he did on his Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report. But, with the CBS gig he plays himself, not the right wing pundit that he played on the cable show. His band is Jon Batiste and Stay Human.

 

The opening show had 6.55 million viewers, a strong start, beating his late night competition. He goes head-to-head against Jimmy Fallon on NBC and Jimmy Kimmel on ABC.

 

The show airs in Canada, India, Asia and Australia.

 

Colbert was a member of the famous Second City improv troupe in Chicago while a student at Northwestern University. Steve Carrell and Amy Sedaris were in Second City at the same time. Starting in 1997, he was a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. In 2005, he left to start his own Comedy Central show, The Colbert Report, which followed Stewart's show.