David Letterman to retire in 2015. Stephen Colbert to take over.

I don't think any place at CBS on West 52nd Street can seat an audience of 350+ people.

 

Letterman and 30 Rock had an energy he never had at the Ed Sullivan Theater IMO.

 

Really? His current show format in completely unique and entertaining. The format he is moving into will be basically, at best, a slight variation on every other late night talk show (except, ironically, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report). Why should I be looking forward to this change exactly?

 

What? Carson's show was vapid in the extreme and even made a point to be cornball, lowbrow material. Sometimes it wasn't much more than HEE-HAW with nice curtains. Carson's skill was to participate in such inanities while appearing to be subjected to them: being peed on by zoo animals, groaner monologue jokes, boring, fatuous guests . . .

 

1. Because you already find him funny and entertaining.
2. Because you don't know what sort of changes he'll bring to the Late Show to make it unique, interesting, or entertaining.
3. Because you haven't seen it yet, therefore have no basis from which to judge it.

How about giving him a chance first, THEN complain if you don't like the results.

 

1) His humor for me is based primarily on his character shtick, I do remember him on the Daily Show before he developed his current character -my recollection was that he was ok, but not that funny.
2) It is true I don't know what changes he will bring, I imagine every new host brings something special to the table and I have no doubt Colbert will as well...but the late night formula is pretty much set in stone and when CBS has a show to promote, Colbert will be supporting that effort, I have no doubt about this and I really doubt he will shake things up that much - I could be wrong here, but I doubt it, which brings me to...
3) Nobody has watched it yet, why does this invalidate my prediction (or your rosey one for that matter)?
Sorry if my less than enthusiatic take on this news comes off as "complaining", but I can live with that. Everything is not always awesome.

 

Yeah, but that would be contrary to how this entire board operates, we have so many psychics on this board that just know every film, album and TV show will suck at least a year before it is released.

 

Like when I knew PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN was going to be a big bust. IIRC, they only squeezed three more sequels and over $5 billion out of that franchise. Fail!

 

Yeah, I could be really happy one of my favorite shows is going to end so that we can have just what I always wanted...another late night chat show. Everything is awesome...everything is cool when your part of the team....

 

To me Stephen Colbert is an inspired choice, who given some freedom might take late night TV in a needed new direction by being an amalgam of Dick Cavett, Johnny Carson, 2nd City, and Saturday Night Live! A little variety show fun, mixed with longer deeper interviews of a wider variety of guests, as well as some nice Carson style sketches, could be a whole lot of fun!

 

Funniest post on the thread so far...except for the inexplicable dig at Don Rickles (always an excellent guest on Tonight). Who really wishes that Johnny had been a "Cavett or Frost"? LOL!

 

Wow. Just wow. A genuine "Johnny-H8TR". As a Marylander, you also seem oddly dismissive of Hee Haw...which gave a national platform to the fastest guitar-picker ever from Ann Arundel County, MD.

 

I never said it would invalidate your prediction. I was just being critical of the fact that you appeared to have no interest whatsoever in giving the show a chance.

 

OK, and I hope the show exceeds my expectations and a buzz is created that tweaks my interest.

 

http://defamer.gawker.com/will-a-woman-take-over-late-late-show-at-cbs-1562248189/all

Ferguson on the chopping block?

 

Ferguson is the best thing in late night tv - if CBS don't renew his contract they are making a huge mistake.

 

If that happens, and I realize my words may come back to haunt me, but that would be a huge mistake.

 

I think his assessment of Carson's Tonight Show is quite accurate. The scripted comedy on the show was corny. The content of discussion was frequently vapid and self promotional. Carson was a better interviewer and a better listener than any of today's hosts, and his show had much more spontaneity than the heavily-scripted shows of today. But Carson's show certainly wasn't more sophisticated or intellectually deeper than what's on now.

As to Hee Haw, I would think even its biggest fans would admit that the non-musical portions of the show were extremely cornball and low-brow. Pointing that out is not necessarily dismissive, since the show's producers intended it to be that way.

 

Amy Sedaris or Paul Dinello would great. Or, if CBS wants to go in a different direction, Dick Cavett could do what Tom Snyder did back in the 90's.

 

CBS wants to skew the show's audience demographic back to the under-50 crowd...no way they'll go with a host that old!!!

 

Cavett is 77

 

I didn't say they would, I only said if they wanted to go in a different direction. Sedaris and Dinello worked with Colbert on "Exit 57" and "Strangers With Candy", and Dinello is a writer on the "Report".

 

I don't think they're going to do that with Dick Cavett. I'm surprised that NBC didn't kind of try to do a little of that with Seth Meyers. The show as it stands now--is deplorable..

 

I agree! Huge mistake!

 

Seth Meyers' show is getting outstanding ratings and beating all competition. Fallon and Meyers are proving to be quite a formidable one, two, punch, especially with the coveted 18-49 demo.