Stephen Colbert has been named the new host of Late Night. No, I mean the Late Show. Well the one with David Letterman anyway. People seem fairly positive about the decision, which is good, because there seems to be an awful lot of discussion of late-night talk shows, given how few people actually watch them.
Some are concerned about the fact that Colbert, on his current show, plays a character. We don't really know what he's actually like. I doubt that would be a problem though. First, if you watch his show carefully, you'll see he drops out of character a lot. He'll occasionally say something extreme that plays into the type-A conservative persona, but then tones it down for most of what his dialog. Secondly, if we're honest, we have to realize that current talk show hosts kind of play a character anyway. If you doubt that, try to imagine any of them at home acting like they do on air.
After Seth Meyers was named new host of Late Night, people lamented that it was yet another white male. The complaints have been surprisingly muted for Colbert, which I suppose is a result of his being an advocate of those who would otherwise complain about lack of representation. But I think it also could be an acknowledgement of this being a good decision.
Now people have started speculating on who will take over Colbert's old time slot. I saw a few tweeters pushing for Samantha Bee. My first reaction was to say, no way, her Daily Show character wouldn't work in doses longer than single sketches. But as I think about it, I think it just might work. If The Colbert Report is a spoof of right-wing pundit shows, Bee's character might be right for a spoof of desperate-to-make-a-story cable news. Or to put out another way: after spending the better part of a decade ridiculing Fox News, why not give CNN a go. So yes, I'd give Bee 180 or whatever it's called a chance.
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