The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert's comedic style really hits the mark for me, and I always look forward to his take on the day's events. Without a doubt, the "Meanwhile..." segment is the highlight of the show for me - his sharp wit and clever writing truly shine there. While I adore "Meanwhile...", I do think it would be great to see the show experiment with some new recurring segments to keep things fresh and exciting.

It's also genuinely sweet to see Stephen's affection for his wife, and their interactions are always charming. However, I do find myself missing the old days of the greeting card segment when he would bring audience members up on stage. Those interactions were always hilarious and added a fun, spontaneous element to the show.

One other thing I've noticed is that Stephen seems to take quite a bit more vacation time compared to his predecessor. While I completely understand the importance of him and his team getting breaks, as someone who relies on his nightly dose of comedy, it can be a bit of a bummer when the show is on hiatus so frequently. Overall, though, I still find "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" to be a consistently entertaining and insightful program.

Okay, but incredibly disappointing after The Colbert Report.

I was skeptical when Stephen Colbert got offered the role of hosting The Late Show. The Colbert Report was one of the funniest, if not THE funniest, shows on TV. It was clever, edgy and didn't mind taking pot shots at politicians, esp right-wing ones and Fox News. Surely moving to a mainsteam show would mean Colbert would have to dumb it down and appeal to a wider audience?

Well, I gave it a fair chance but I fear I was right. The edginess has gone ("Oh, no, kids might be watching!") and his shtick has been dumbed down quite a lot.

Even worse, and something I did not see coming as I figured its is well beneath him, he is having to play all those stupid clickbait games that Jimmy Fallon does (and which makes Fallon's show such a waste of time). You know, get some major star in and instead of asking them intelligent questions, get them to do something stupid. Just so that there'll be dozens of clickbait posts the next day with "See Stephen Colbert get Victoria's Secret models to eat buffalo wings!", say.

There are occasional glimpses of the old Colbert. Some clever skits, biting satire and the pokes at right-wing politicians, but they are few and far between.

Best thing to do: watch the clever stuff, fast forward through the rest.

I have been an avid fan of Stephen since 2009, which says a lot about how much i like him, considering i am not an American. In fact, here in Greece the Colbert phenomenon is virtually unknown and only very few take the time to observe the late night scene where Stephen reigned supreme (ok, maybe along with Jon Stewart). Still, personally i always found his kind of satire being cutting edge and bold, and could always discern the intelligence and warmth behind the facade of the conservative pundit. Sadly what i saw these last two days (after months of waiting anxiously for the show) was not what Stephen really deserves. All this prancing around, the constant smiling without apparent reason, the extremely safe style of humor, the really inconsequential questions...all these just are not what Stephen is. Fallon or Conan(two people who i also like for different reasons) can do that, Stephen should maintain his unique style and avoid becoming one of the plenty. He doesn't need to pretend being a conservative, he just has to remain classy and dangerously smart. The only segments where the Stephen we love broke through, were Trump's critique and some parts of the Clooney and Bush interviews. Maybe he fears CBS or the "variety" character of the show are not appropriate for what he did so far, but i honestly believe that CBS should accommodate his style and not vice versa. I say all this with sincere care and choose to avoid rush judgment and vote based on what i hope the show will finally be when Stephen gets his balance back, as i am sure he will. Please consider this more of a friendly comment rather than any kind of judgmental rant. Until then Stephen, we will all be watching, supporting and hoping for the best!

From being a player on ABC's short-lived variety show The Dana Carvey Show to being a correspondent on The Daily Show for 8 years and hosting his own show for 9 years playing a fictionalized character, Stephen Colbert has conquered a lot of challenges, and in 2015, he would do his biggest challenge yet: to host CBS's The Late Show as a successor to David Letterman.

When Letterman retired on May 20th, CBS went all out with promoting the show and reworking the famous Ed Sullivan Theater where Letterman has hosted in from his entire tenure (apart from his on-location shows outside of New York).

It was the beginning of a new era of The Late Show.

It may have taken him a while to find his footing as he was being himself for the first time after playing a character for 9 years, but the execution was there, and he was smooth sailing by the following years. My grandmother had never heard of him until I showed her the Comedy Central Christmas special and now, she watches him every weeknight on this show!

So, if you're a fan of Mr. Colbert and only known him as his Report character, see him in action as himself.

You won't regret it!

Well, after 3 shows that were quite disappointing, it's clear that (i) Colbert is a fantastic host but (ii) being on CBS basically kills his potential.

This new show is passable, barely saved by Colbert's talent but offers pretty much no fun and no depth. In a nutshell, it's just another bland network TV show without much interest.

The inability to bring the best of the best TV host in the US on CBS demonstrates why it is way overdue that network TV shall disappear and cable shall take over. HBO has done it for TV and movies, Comedy central demonstrated it in reverse by letting Stephen Colbert go and lose most of his potential.

Stephen, please come back to cable and do what you do best instead of losing your soul and wasting your potential on CBS.