Thursday, April 10, 2014

Stephen Colbert to Replace Letterman? Congrats from IWS ... Kinda

Holaaaaaaaaa! On behalf of the entire staff here at IWS World Media Entertainment I would like to congratulate our friend and colleague Stephen Colbert on being named David Letterman’s replacement. I know he’ll do a great job. This gives Stephen a chance to stop doing the “O’Reilly Shtick” and just be himself. I’m sure he’ll be ultra-successful and The Late Show will be must see TV.

Oh sure, Matt and I would have been better. I mean, we all know that, right? Only one hour each night? Just like seven minutes to exchange witty banter before the first break and then some skit or check in with a correspondent? Easy! Then bring on a guest? Someone who might talk so we don’t have to? OMG! Our dream! Then after the next break we do the Poet’s Corner or Tammy or Ma Tibbles and then another break? Then another guest who does most of the talking? Then after the final commercial break we bring on the musical guest or a stand up and then say goodnight? We could do that without even trying.

We could host The Late Show AND STILL do the radio show every week. Shows like “Poets, Prose and Poseurs” which we’re doing this Sunday at 12 Noon ET. No problem. Especially if we got the same size writing staff that Letterman had. Hell, we could do it with half the staff.  But, it was not to be. Of course, my repeatedly referring to Les Moonves’ wife Julie Chen as his “mail order bride” probably didn’t help much. Oops!


I did get a kick out of watching the reaction from people online to the announcement though. I’m not unsympathetic to the people who were hoping CBS would go in a non-white male direction for host. It would have been a good idea to shake things up a bit and break the late night mold. But, it’s entirely possible that all the people mentioned as great ideas to replace Letterman have other things they want to do.

Tina Fey, Amy Poeler and Kristen Wiig were mentioned by lots of people. Did anyone really think they were going to just up and drop the TV shows and movies they’re working on and go host a late night show? Did anyone really think they would dump Loren Michaels and take over a show directly competing against The Tonight Show? How fucking stupid are you if you thought that?

A lot of people also hoped for Aisha Tyler. Really? She would certainly be good at it. Everyone agrees. Sure she was a disaster on Talk Soup and hasn’t gotten good reviews on “Who’s Line is it Anyway,” but those are very different from late night show. Again though, she’s got “The Talk” and “Archer” and a new show that is in development and her stand up and you thought she would just up and drop all that to HOST A SHOW THAT YOU’RE NOT EVEN GONNA WATCH???? Come on!


These late night shows are hard to find hosts for. You aren’t gonna get someone like Luis C.K, Amy Schumer, Hannibal Buress or any comedian who is hot and doing a lot of stuff right now cause they won’t want to throw it all away just to host a show. You need someone who isn’t in demand and doesn’t really have any buzz or a lot of options. That’s why I thought Jerry Seinfeld might be the perfect replacement Matt-Man and I would be the perfect choice. But, it just didn’t work out. Oh well.



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