Wednesday, May 04, 2005

Great news from Comedy Central: The Daily Show's Stephen Colbert is getting his own half-hour program* starting this fall. The Colbert Report will immediately follow and be closely linked to Jon Stewart's Daily. They may even do one of those "tosses" that the cable news nets do, like Larry King throwing it to Aaron Brown between their respective programs.

Where Jon Stewart skewers news shows, Colbert's new effort will take on the trappings of the commentator-driven genre, spoofing the Hannitys and O'Reilly's of the world. Given that Colbert has been doing this on The Daily Show for years, I'd say it's high time he was given the chance to try it on his own.

Will it work? Ask me this autumn. But I have immense faith in Colbert's talents, and given that this new show will be done by Stewart's own production company, it's certainly got the right pedigree.

If nothing else, it means Jon Stewart won't have to pimp shows like Crank Yankers at the end of his broadcast anymore. That in itself is a major blessing.

*NYT link - reg. req. or bugmenot

Posted @ 6:34 AM

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