TV Tuesday: Previewing The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Chattanooga (WDEF) It’s been a long wait, since David Letterman ended his run last spring.

CBS gave us a summer with late night re-runs instead of a Late Show.

The wait has been tough on Stephen Colbert, too.

You can tell by the podcasts, videos and travelling road show that he did to keep busy.

So tonight, he’s back (see preview to the left).

But will he answer the two big questions that have been dogging him this summer!

1) Just who is Stephen Colbert after all?

The blowhard, know-it-all character from Comedy Central or "himself," whoever that is. 

Colbert has been walking a tightrope with this.

He stresses that the Colbert Report was based on a character, not himself.  And clearly, neither he nor CBS want him to be that political.

Instead, he will get to try out new characters.

But he says the Comedy Central show did prepare him for a daily, topical show that Late Night requires.

And he even has been joking that he really did agree with the Report character’s opinions more than he wanted to admit at the time.

2)  Which brings us to question number II: where does he fit in the Jimmy World of Fallon & Kimmel?

Colbert isn’t talking about the other guys, but the first two weeks of guests tell a lot.

The current class of late night shows are geared towards viral, online moments.  That means sucking up to stars to talk them into doing outlandish things.  And it also means a lot of promotion of their next projects, in exchange.

Colbert will have the stars.  But he’s also booking non-celebs like Elon Musk from Tesla & Travis Kalanick from Uber.  Candidates Jeb Bush & Bernie Saunders. And the United Nations Secretary General.

So dare we say his show will be a bit smarter than Slow Jamming the news or Mean Tweets?

I’m sure he wouldn’t say that.  "Smart" rarely wins on TV.

They aren’t talking about beating Fallon after the first few weeks.  And that’s probably out of reach.

But if Colbert is competitive, and develops his own audience, CBS will be happy.

Particularly if that audience is younger and well-heeled like the Colbert Report following.

So let’s see if we get the answers tonight at 11:35, right after WDEF News 12 at Eleven.

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Did Colbert give us a glimpse of his new show this summer?

Check out the Late Night, Michigan style he taped at a public access channel in July.

CBS is using the debut of Late Night to pitch their streaming service.  You get a free trial for a week to see if Stephen is worth it.