Time For Stephen Colbert To Light Shit On Fire

That doesn’t mean the show is bad or that Colbert and team deserved this fate. Colbert is one of the most genuine and gifted interviewers in the history of late night television. It takes a special talent to make a talk show moment go viral on the strength of a genuine conversation. But it’s just too hard a trick to recreate over and over. 

In general, I do wish there were more grace afforded to late night as we dive deeper into what feels like a dark chapter in the history of the genre. These shows have, historically, delivered some of TV’s most imaginative and bold comedy, cultural commentary, and political satire. In a pre-Internet era, they exposed the audience to musicians and comedians who might otherwise languish in the dark. In a world that finds relief from bludgeoning narratives and harsh realities by way of pop culture distractions, it’s easy to make the case that these shows have and still do provide a public service. These are institutions that, in a perfect world, would get some kind of landmark protections.

Maybe that’s why Colbert is getting a 10-month wind-down period instead of a more immediate hook. The question is, will CBS (and anyone with a rooting interest in Colbert being off the air) come to regret that?

For nearly a year, the beloved Colbert is going to have plenty of famous figures on to mourn the news and swipe back at his perceived executioner(s). Will he tamp that down or add lighter fluid? 

I will be honest, I greatly favored Colbert Report Stephen to the Late Show version. While he found a groove in the ratings with his constant comedic takes on Trump across nearly 10 years, much of that material hasn’t always had the same bite and stickiness as that previous era or even competitors like Seth Meyers. 

Is that old Colbert still in there? Is he angry? I hope so. 

No one in late-night has been so publicly severed from his job since Conan O’Brien, who used the waning weeks of his Tonight Show to throw some jarring and hilarious hooks at his soon-to-be former employers, tapping into the mischievous energy that often elevates late-night. These shows work best when they are not coloring inside the lines or playing it safe. There should be no internal restraint on Colbert, who should come out of the shock of all of this by taking a page from his friend Jon Stewart and start biting hands. 

Colbert already goes in on the Trump administration nightly, but they can go harder and smarter. A comic versus the leader of the free world isn’t exactly a fair fight. Colbert can’t do much from behind his desk, but if he did get cut even partly because he irritated Trump, then Colbert deserves to take some satisfaction in bothering the President for a 10-month gauntlet that might someday be looked back on as his defining era. And we deserve the catharsis of watching and laughing.