As The Late Show with Stephen Colbert closes, we are looking for the old magic
My first exposure to The Late Show with David Letterman was a conversation around the show rather than the show itself. I was at the Modbury Heights Shopping Centre newsagency in suburban Adelaide as a 13 year-old. I remember browsing through the comics while listening to the guy behind the counter talking about Letterman debuting in Australia.
This must have been just after the show debuted in the US in August, 1993.
We didn’t get Late Night with David Letterman or any of the other US late night talk shows in Australia (outside of Carson’s Comedy Classics compilations airing in the early hours of the morning), but we had our own chat shows over the years. At the time Letterman launched, we had Steve Vizard hosting Tonight Live, stealing all of Letterman’s schtick. He even did a “Top Seven” list every night, with a nod to his broadcast network Seven.
“Vizard was always pretty crap,” I recall the newsagency guy saying to a customer.
It was that insightful media criticism that introduced me to the idea that maybe this Letterman guy might be worth paying attention to.
The Late Show with David Letterman became a fixture in my entertainment diet soon after. I would quite regularly record the show (which, by 1994 was scheduled in an irregular set of changing timeslots between midnight and 3am) on my VCR. The show was US entertainment media to me. It had the biggest stars talking each night to one of TV’s biggest stars. With regular stunts and oddball comedy bits (how many men in bunny suits could one fit in an H&R block was one of my favourites), I was enthralled. The whole show seemed like a magic trick to me.
Letterman was magic. The Late Show was magic. The Ed Sullivan Theatre was magic.
By the time Letterman decided to pull the plug on his own show in 2015, late night TV was feeling a little less magical, but there was still a twinkle. I remember watching over those final weeks of the show, captivated by a who’s who of stars that I liked coming on the show for their last experience with Dave.
What I didn’t realise then was that those final weeks were pretty much the death of late night TV. Sure, it has lumbered on, but it has never felt special since.
Colbert seemed like a natural successor to David Letterman. I’d have to pull the tape, but I’m pretty certain that when Letterman announced his retirement, I was on a radio segment about 30 minutes later with Spencer Howson for ABC Radio Brisbane Breakfast where I put forward Colbert’s name as a likely candidate.
I loved Colbert at the time and I still do. But, was he the right man for the job?
When he debuted, his ratings weren’t great. In that first year he was trailing The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon (Fallon was around a million viewers ahead, with 3.7 million viewers on average) and there was even some chatter about a replacement.
But then Colbert started leaning in to politics and actively talking about it from a left-perspective in a way that late night hosts just hadn’t previously. Usually they tried to be more down the middle, trying not to piss off half the audience. If Trump hadn’t been elected, would the Colbert tenure on The Late Show have lasted as long as it did.
I’d still watch The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He was, by far, the best of the late night show hosts (until Jon Stewart returned to again host The Daily Show), but at no point has his show ever felt like magic.
The sparkle has just never quite been there for the show. Would I feel differently about it if the show’s rightful heir, former The Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson, had actually taken over the show? Maybe.
Questions remain over the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Was the show cancelled for reasons of politics? Almost certainly. Does the excuse hold up that the cost of producing the show didn’t make financial sense anymore? Absolutely.
The business model for late night chat in the US is threatened by the same forces that are impacting broadcast linear. There’s too much fragmentation of entertainment options with younger viewers (and a growing number of older viewers) drawn to digital platforms.
The homogeneity of US late night chat with three network TV hosts all offering only slightly different versions of the exact same show (with two of them named Jimmy) doesn’t help grow viewer interest.
These final weeks of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert only ever felt like magic when David Letterman stopped by last week for his farewell. The final episode won’t see the massive viewership spike Dave saw for his final episode in 2015 (over 13 million people tuned in).
Colbert’s final episode will air in just a few hours. The lights will get turned off at The Ed Sullivan Theatre. And The Late Show will be no more.
The conversation about the end of The Late Show won’t inspire a store owner to talk about the show itself with a random customer. The chat will be about corporate stooges caving to political pressure.
It’s a different conversation. One completely absent of magic.
News Desk
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Avatar: Fire and Ash are coming to the Vision Pro in 3D to buy and rent. Read: Road To VR
The Boroughs co-showrunner says the show has no connection to Stranger Things. It isn’t a secret spin-off. Read: Polygon
On Saturday Apple TV will record and stream a live Major League Soccer match entirely with iPhones. Read: Deadline
Over the years episodes of Jackass have been re-edited and re-sequenced. In a win for art, the episodes have been restored to their original form and will stream on Paramount+. Read: Variety
Speaking of art, Emily in Paris will end with season six on Netflix. Read: THR
The BBC is reportedly working on a new series based on Agatha Christie’s Poirot, with a plan for it to run up to three seasons. Read: Radio Times
Do you ever wonder what happened to Mike Richards, the one-time EP of Jeopardy! who hired himself as host? He just got a new role at right wing media company The Daily Caller as CEO. He’s been with the company for a while, a period politely referred to as ‘tumultous’. Read: The AV Club
During the live broadcast of the season finale of Survivor, host Jeff Probst mistakenly revealed the winner before it was supposed to be revealed. Read: THR
Iowa man Kyle Lee Owens, an actual adult, is suing Nintendo because his application to become a Pokémon Professor was denied. Read: Polygon
Trailer Park
Avatar: The Last Airbender returns on Netflix for season 2 on June 25.
The Evil Lawyer (a silly, redundant title… just call it ‘The Lawyer’) debuts on Netflix June 11.
The searing legal drama cracks open Thailand's justice system - and asks what it really takes to fight for the truth when the system is broken, and the odds are stacked against you.
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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Loved The Late Show with David Letterman during it's run. And I remember that last episode being a bit bittersweet. And you are right there was a certain magic to TLSwDL.
I'm all for the political turn of the late night shows. They are meeting the moment. I love A Closer Look with Seth Meyers. Watch it on YouTube. The Daily Show is amazing. Jimmy Kimmel is great. And Last Week Tonight with John Oliver is my favourite.
I hope Stephen Colbert lands on his feet somewhere. Maybe Netflix can finally make late night work on streaming. Would they put their clips on YouTube? My inkling is they would be cowards and don't want to upset the orange man.
Just a correction for you too. Mike Richards is to be the CEO of The Daily Wire, not The Daily Caller. Two media outlets I am glad to see doing terribly.