re: Late Show with Stephen Colbert Debut Thread - Tonight 11:35/10:35c

It's his first show, they will be testing things out over the next year (hell, it wasn't until 3 years in when Kevin Eubanks was tapped to become the band leader on the Tonight Show). With that said there are some areas of focus that shone through last night.

1. The Clooney interview. This was awkward and clunky. I understand wanting a big name for the first interview, but have something interesting to talk about with them.

2. The Sabra product placement. I liked the idea, really liked it, but the bit went a little too long. Had he left it at the dip cups I think it would have been okay.

3. The monologue. Not bad but not good either. I see great potential once he can get over his jitters (and he was jittery most of the night, it came through when he would mis-speak).

4. Concept vs. Reality. I get what he was trying to do with the "We don't know each other" bit with Clooney, but it was horribly, horribly flat. Why? Because it's best appeal is its concept. It's like Andy Kaufmann trolling his audience by reading Great Gatsby. It sounds great as a concept, but when you actually see it, it sucks. In the late night show genre if the majority of your audience doesn't "get it" quickly, you've failed.

5. The biggest issue I think he has is: who really is Stephen Colbert? Last night we saw quite a bit of Colbert Report's presentation up until the Jeb interview. I felt like this was the first glimpse at the actual person, sans-character. He needs to focus on that.

All-in-all it wasn't bad for a first show. It was definitely above anything Pat Sajak or Carson Daily did.