For those hungry for even more details and news about Stephen Colbert’s Late Show revamp, The New York Times has you covered. In an incredibly interesting and endearing profile, the paper talked to the host, who it calls “The Late Night Hope.” Though the piece is lengthy, it’s interesting, especially for those who are interested in both Colbert’s comedy and in how a television show is developed.
Unsurprisingly, it turns out you can’t just launch a late night talk show. Colbert, it seems, has been given a bit of carte blanche by CBS. For instance:
His line of work requires such decisiveness, Mr. Colbert said, not just to navigate the sheer number of choices constantly hurled at him, but because, at its best, a late-night program should be a pure expression of its host and his staff.
“You can make the show into anything you want,” he said. “There is no place for a network to say, ‘This is what it’s going to be.’ Because it’s just the guy and the desk, and he needs around him who he needs.”
As to what the show will actually be, well, Colbert seems to be keeping that under wraps for the most part. Though the piece has a few pictures of Colbert shooting an opening for the first episode, a glimpse at the talk show host’s new desk, and even a shot of the newly revamped Ed Sullivan Theater, the Times didn’t manage to get Colbert to reveal much about the show’s format. As the piece puts it,
Mr. Colbert is keeping many details about his show under wraps until its debut. (When a reporter said that he assumed there would be an opening monologue, he replied: “Really? Are you going to do a monologue?”) But in his taped comedy bits, he continues to present himself as a self-assured if blithely oblivious character, now free to explore the world beyond the daily headlines.
The entire thing is more than worth a few minutes and is over on the Times’ website.