CBSCBS' Late Show is looking different...and yet awfully familiar.
Now that we've picked up the pieces of our heart following the explosion that occurred when Stephen Colbert interviewed John Oliver last night—every second was awesome, that is a fact!—we figured it was as good a time as any to assess the lay of the late-night land.
We'll admit, we were worried at first. The big highlight of the Late Show's Sept. 8 premiere was the Jon Stewart cameo and, to be honest, the only special thing about the show was Colbert himself. (Which, mind you, would have been more than enough to win him DVR permanence, but still.) The host kept interrupting first-ever guest George Clooney—shh, we want more Clooney sarcasm and Amal info!—and the jokes were on the neutered side.
Then the next night, the first of what is apparently now the recurring "ask-the-big-questions" bit, with Scarlett Johansson...awkward. And so there was concern, that the Late Show With Stephen Colbert was going to be Colbert-lite, and that the required A-list interviews were going to be an interminable slog.
But little hints that the man who defeated Grimmy and flew away with Santa Claus was still in there...
The night-one Jeb Bush interview was perfectly fine, and we could have watched Stephen high-kick with Jon Batiste for an hour and called it a good show. But there was a glimmer of Colbert in his element when Elon Musk followed Johansson on night two and... there was hope. There were signs of life in that interview, and it only got better when the Uber CEO showed up the next night...
Well, 17 Late Show(s) With Stephen Colbert in, we are happy to report that we need not have worried. Minus not having to ostentatiously pretend that he agrees with the most conservative viewpoints on the big issues of the day, "Stephen Colbert" lives!
It looks like the "real" Stephen was always hiding in plain sight because you'd be hard-pressed to listen to what is now Late Show-brand commentary on Donald Trump, Pope Francis, the new iPhone 6s, et al., and distinguish it from an eloquently scripted and performed bit from The Colbert Report.
And. We. Could. Not. Be. Happier.
When donning a Caesar Flickman wig and memorializing, Hunger Games-style, the GOP tributes presidential candidates as they drop out of the race one by one is the least of the genius (and it's still grand)... then you know you're in good hands.
Plus, this week he added a "Tip of the Hat"-reminiscent segment—"Stephen Colbert Gets All Up in Your Faith"—and featured a bit in which he sat down with a psychologist who assessed his personality type—his first screwy interview with someone who may not have known what she was in for and yet played along admirably.
We are back in business!
Which is especially nice because didn't we go through the emotional wringer enough this summer when we said goodbye to The Daily Show With Jon Stewart...
Right, about that.
We're only three episodes into The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, so this is far from definitive... but Trevor Noah is great! Sure, he's living the WWJD (What Would Jon Do?) life at every turn, and we know what they were doing by keeping the intro and the theme music (who else was surprised that it was exactly the same on night one?), lulling us into submission...
But it worked. Not fixing what wasn't broken was a good move and no one had to deal with the discomfort of having to watch anything...different. [Shudder.] Our addled, 2016-campaign-deluged brains just couldn't take it.
Surely Noah's version of the show is a work in progress, but we've been LOL'ing on a nightly, er, Daily basis so far. (Which reminds us, Larry Wilmore is killin' it over at The Nightly Show too!)
So between those guys, Colbert's resurgence, Jimmy Kimmel's beard and the continued sprightliness of Jimmy Kimmel and James Corden—as of Oct. 1, 2015, it's a new day in the late-night world and all is well.