This week, CBS announced that conservative-mocking comedian Stephen Colbert would replace David Letterman as the new host of The Late Show beginning next year. News of the overtly anti-conservative comedian’s hiring has caused some pushback, particularly from the #CancelColbert crowd, but his reported five-year contract with CBS suggests execs expect him to be there for the long run.
Colbert’s attempt at moving from a half-hour scripted show on Comedy Central to a full-hour true talk show format on a mainstream network brings to mind Jon Stewart’s brief attempt to move his first talk show, The Jon Stewart Show, from MTV to national syndication.
While The Jon Stewart Show was quite popular on MTV, when Paramount Television attempted to replace the canceled The Arsenio Hall Show (1989-1994) with a new syndicated version, the show failed.
The Jon Stewart Show first aired on MTV in October 1993 as a half-hour daily talk show. It became quite popular among the MTV crowd, second only to Beavis and Butt-Head (seriously). Paramount Television, at the time MTV’s corporate partner, believed the popular show would translate to mainstream audiences, and when the Arsenio Hall Show was canceled in 1994, the corporation tagged Jon Stewart’s talk show as the replacement.
Despite landing some big names, like Courteney Cox, John Stamos, Marilyn Manson, William Shatner, Howard Stern, Conan O’Brien, and David Letterman, The Jon Stewart Show only managed to hold on for about a year in syndication, proving unable to be a viable show for mainstream audiences.
The parallels between Stewart's and Colbert's moves from half-hour niche market shows to full-hour mainstream programming obviously don't mean Colbert will necessarily fail. The Jon Stewart Show featured a young host and attempted to maintain its edgy, immature MTV aura. Colbert will likely be required by CBS to conform to more traditional talk show formatting and delivery. But will conservative audiences be able to forget his old shtick?
Video compilation courtesy MJButterman.
