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The Late Show With Stephen Colbert Is Getting Another Big Shake-Up

posted 9 years ago by TMC-4
5 replies | jump to latest

http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Late-Show-With-Stephen-Colbert-Getting-Another-Big-Shake-Up-143517.html

Late night television on CBS has gone through some serious changes over the past year. Longtime Late Show host David Letterman departed and was replaced by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The show has continued to go through changes since Colbert took the top job in September of 2015, and the latest shake-up is a big one. Executive producer Meredith Bennett has officially left The Late Show. Meredith Bennett’s roles on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert involved business and production, according to Variety. She had previously collaborated with Stephen Colbert during his tenure as host of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central, and she chose to move to CBS

[–] haynese_98 9 years ago

I'm starting to worry that nothing can be done to save Colbert.

Shall we play a game?

[–] BilboTheDefiler 9 years ago

boom

[–] dvd123 9 years ago

Back in September, I predicted, within a year, an exodus of Colbert Report talent, and, while it's really tempting to point to this departure as the first potential domino in a more comprehensive exit, I think it would make a mountain out of a molehill. In other words, this is just not that significant. EPs come and go all the time. I think, with a failing show, there may be an impulse to read additional meaning into staff changes, but calling this a 'Big Shake-Up' is a massive reach. Licht was a 'Big Shake Up.' This is just your average network producer attrition.

Not that I'm backing off my exodus prediction :) Brian Stack (from Conan) is penning more and more sketches (sketches that typically fail), so as Stephen's old Colbert Report writers are being phased out, it's only natural that they'd start to jump ship.

Both Colbert and Noah have multiple Emmy award writing teams that they're passing over in favor of FAR less talented people. It takes a special kind of stupidity to ignore the greatest minds in television sitting at your writing table, and, instead, give the work to hacks- and when your ratings are plummeting, it even makes less sense. It would be like needing surgery, and, rather than finding a proven surgeon, just grabbing some guy off the street.

With Noah, it's primarily a case of nepotism- he's just favoring his friends. But Colbert seems to be avoiding utilizing the architects of the persona that he hated so much. Either way, if you have talented people at your beckon call, but, instead, rely on the untalented, don't be surprised when the ratings plummet. Garbage in garbage out.

[–] TMC-4 9 years ago

http://uproxx.com/tv/stephen-colbert-is-having-a-very-bad-week/

And that’s Colbert’s biggest problem: He wants to be an all encompassing “America’s Host” when that’s not at all what Colbert is. Colbert is smart and he’s divisive and he has opinions. Yeah, I get that old line, “Republicans watch television, too,” but the world doesn’t work like that anymore. You can still “play to everyone,” but it’s in the form of what Fallon and Corden do. Stephen Colbert dancing around the stage with Skrillex just seems off – and from the body language of Colbert, I bet he knows it’s off, too.

[–] dvd123 9 years ago

While it's incredibly tempting to call Mike Ryan a moron, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and chalk up the ignorance he's dishing out to a yellow journalistic urge for page views.

Bottom line, Mike is reading way too much into relatively meaningless events.

2. Then James Corden goes on Howard Stern’s radio show and is asked about potentially replacing Colbert as the host of The Late Show

switching Colbert and Corden actually makes some sense.

When you're consistently getting .2s in the demo, as Corden is, you're not a replacer, you're the replacee. The fact that someone on the Howard Stern Show is dumb enough to not know how ratings work doesn't make this news.

The truth is, he’s playing a character right now, and he’s not very good at it.

How many pundits are going to keep parroting this crap? I know, losing the Report persona is painful, perhaps painful enough to foster a few months of denial, but wake up already. What we're seeing right now is the 'real' Stephen Colbert. The Report persona is dead. Kaput. In the words of Monty Python, "THIS PARROT IS NO MORE!"

4. I think at this point it’s a safe bet to assume that David Letterman isn’t the biggest fan of Stephen Colbert’s Late Show.

If you watch Letterman's interview, it's crystal clear that he neither endorses the new Late Show, nor condemns it. Is it really that much of a surprise that Dave is apathetic about the whole thing?

How many different ways can Mike Ryan attempt to spin non news into news? It's pathetic. Colbert IS having a bad week, but not for the reasons outlined in the article. He scored .3s in the demo on Monday and Wednesday, and, on Monday and Tuesday, lost to reruns of Kimmel. Stern, Handler, Letterman, and Stewart can do and say anything they damn well please- any week with a .3 rating is a very bad week.