I thought this was a bad idea for Colbert when I first heard about it. I also thought it was a bad idea for comedy TV in general. I’ll be surprised if it ever reaches anything approaching the brilliance of Colbert Report. It’s just not his thing, IMO; satire is.
Argh, I wish I could watch this. I actually let myself be suckered into getting a free week of CBS streaming, only to find out afterwards that live streaming isn’t available in my area. Yeesh.
So…musical guests?
Ben Folds
Brittany Howard
Mavis Staples
Who else.? Trumpet player looks familiar.
I was hoping for better. The comedy felt kind of forced, and most of the jokes didn’t really land. Hopefully he’ll find his groove soon.
I agree with the general trend of comments so far. Colbert can be brilliant and he does have a quick wit, but none of it came through tonight. Really disappointing. Even his two interviews were pretty awful, and yet I know from the Colbert Report that the guy can be a great interviewer. I mean, when a naturally charismatic guy like Clooney is struggling to be entertaining, it’s a bad sign. Maybe Colbert was just plain nervous, but even the writing was pretty bad.
Still love Colbert’s talent and hope he does find his groove, but this wasn’t a great start.
Another thing that reminded me of why I watch so little TV these days – and this may have been specific to the Canadian broadcast on Global – but there was one point around the halfway mark where I swear there must have been ten straight minutes of commercials. Absolutely intolerable.
I liked it. It wasn’t perfect (what is) but I laughed and had fun. He’s not reinventing the wheel, here. It was his first shot at a new show and it had promise.
I was really grooving the ‘Everyday People’ cover at the end as well. (Sue me, I’m an old and I like that song.)
The man with all the polka dots is Buddy Guy.
I’m watching the ending of the show now, Colbert’s naming everyone, I’ll type 'em out.
Derek Trucks of the Tedeschi-Trucks Band and the Allman Brothers.
Susan Tedeschi
Ben Folds
Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes
Mavis Staples of The Staples Singers
Sad to say I didn’t recognize the other names enough to be able to pick them out among all the noise.
My only familiarity with Mavis Staples is that she did that terrific vocal intro to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – a happy, upbeat swinging song if ever there was one!
Just read a review of the show in Variety – the guy liked it better than most of us here, so let’s see where it goes. I thought it fell flat but I wish Stephen the best. And I was right about the almost ten minutes of commercials at the mid-point – he said it was nine. Just utterly intolerable.
I liked it. The Clooney bit was weak, but overall this was more offbeat and political than what you’d expect from mainstream TV. It felt like the Report fused with a late night talk show… which really isn’t that surprising.
I really liked it, I’m surprised to see the comments from people really not liking it. I’ve seen other places online, like AV Club and Uproxx where they liked it too.
I agree, he didn’t reinvent the wheel, but I wouldn’t be too surprised if he changed up the format a bit going forward. But I also wouldn’t be unhappy if he kept the format like he did tonight.
I thought the monologue was weak, but after that it picked up. I liked the cursed amulet bit, it felt very much like something from the Colbert Report. I also liked the Trump segment, it was a good way to show the ridiculousness of Trump, but also the ridiculousness of how the media covers all the things he says.
The Clooney segment was fine, but I thought his “movie” was hilarious. The Jeb! interview wasn’t exactly hard-hitting, but it was definitely less gentle than it could have been. I liked Colbert pointing out that there is a limit on what presidents can do regarding education, and him plainly asking what makes Jeb! different politically than his brother. And though Colbert wasn’t exactly tough on Bush, I’m positive that he was tougher than Fallon will be on Trump.
I thought it was a very good start to the show, and I’ll be looking forward to future episodes.
I think the Jeb interview was strange - it seemed like Stephen didn’t let Jeb answer many questions before jumping in to ask another one… but then I saw that the show actually went on for far longer than an hour and was cut for TV. That may explain some of the strangeness, which will get better over time.
I thought it was just okay. No doubt he’s a much better interviewer than the sycophantic Fallon, but he’ll have to step up his game in order to compete with Fallon’s celebrity games and ready-made viral bits.
There was some text on the screen with something about “for the full interview go to www.colbertlateshow.com”. I know the Daily Show would do that sometimes, with having longer interviews they’d put up online, and I think the Colbert Report did as well, and I guess they’ll do that sometimes on the Late Show too. That explains the strange editing, because they chopped some of it out, but if you want to see the whole thing you can go online.
I didn’t see it till this morning (I’m usually close to unconscious by 9PM) and I thought it was OK, but not great. I kinda felt the same way about the Colbert Report when it first started. I expect the show will find itself in the coming weeks and months. I wish him well - I really like Stephen and I’d like him to succeed.
I am waiting to see it tonight when my family is all together. As I recall it, The Colbert Report took a good few months to find its stride.
I thought it started well. Colbert has a more defined personality than most of the other late nighters and it comes through the camera.
Then the demon amulet brought it down and the show never recovered. All the energy dissipated, the sharpness got blunted. A long bit on Trump when another candidate was actually on the show was a terrible decision; it undercut himself.
In short, an average first show. They’re always mediocre at best. It’ll take another year to judge whether he’s worth watching nightly. Too much of it felt like it was packed in cotton wool to be bundled off straight to the Smithsonian or American Museum of Television.
The tag at very end - him and Fallon in the locker room mentioned earlier, with all the lockers having the names of the late-night hosts - was cute.
Longest commercial break I’ve ever fast-forwarded through! :mad:
And why the fuck have Susan Tedeschi on stage without a guitar? 
As noted above, the “demon” segment was bad. I wouldn’t be surprised if he lost half the audience right there.
Better pick up your game, Colbert!
Agree about the demon bit. Clooney was a terrible first guest to have on, since he didn’t have much to say and the movie bit was pretty obvious.
The Trump/Oreos bit, though was good, and could have been a good Colbert Report bit, except the character would have pretended to like Trump. It is encouraging that they are still going to do that kind of humor.
And I liked the opening well enough for the first show, partly because of Stewart and partly because I had been to that place in Fort Worth earlier this year.
But a mass audience show like this is not going to be as edgy and high concept as a Comedy Central show.
It was clear that Colbert was uneasy and distracted; I found myself wondering if he’d gotten some bad news just before the show started. At one point he tried to do a pen-flip and dropped the pen, and you could see him thinking about trying to save it with a witty line but not having one ready to use. Most of the show was awkwardness personified. (But I will watch again as, like many here, I’m a fan of Colbert’s and am willing to be patient.)
So, which came first, the decision to invite his family members to the opening show, or the decision to ask Jeb Bush to appear on the opening show? Because the lead-up to Colbert asking Jeb if he had any disagreements with W’s policies was really well-framed, with Colbert asking his OWN brother if they had any disagreements.
It was odd that Jeb asked, twice, I think, if the brother in the audience was younger than Stephen. His persistence about it was really strange.
Actually I found the demon bit hilarious, once you realized it was homage to the fact he was now on a major broadcast network and that sponsors really mean something now. The whole ‘selling my soul to sponsors to get this show’ just put me over the top.
Perhaps kind of Inside Baseball for broadcasters, but I got what he was doing and identified immediately. It was an extension of the Mentalist gag to some degree, joking about how he wasn’t his own man anymore.
I expect more jokes in the same vein in the future as he tests his boundaries.