The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Suggestion Box

[Kromm]

What should Stephen do on his new show and how? Suggestions here.  Since his writing/producing gang are net savvy there's even a microscopic chance they might even see this!

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Here's some of mine.

1.) Do something DEEPLY and fundamentally different from the other current American talk shows -- Graham Norton style "all at once" interviews.  This could be a VITAL point of difference between Colbert and the others.  If someone with the ability to reach the Colbert folks somehow reads this I beg of you to actually drop this idea in the right ears.

2.) No sidekick.  They work for some hosts.  I just don't see one working for Stephen.

3.) I'm up in the air on the location. Normally I'd be all about New York.  The energy is just infinitely superior for a show with an audience.  That said, LA could actually be the better market now because two talk shows will still be in NY.  This is a toughie, so this one is less a suggestion and more a plea for the show to really deeply consider all angles of this decision.

[thispersonstinks]

First, I think more writers would be involve on-air. Also, diversify the writers now that Colbert is himself. I'm shocked there was outrage on Colbert because CBS didn't hire a minority or woman. I wouldn't go after CBS on the host since they were looking for the best person in the position, but I would try to pressure Colbert and CBS to hire more diverse writers so Colbert can play around.

This one is more subtle but could be potentially funny is, in the Fall, have Stephen Colbert bring a nun to pick NFL games against him, a la Glenn Brenner, You get Colbert's favorites: Catholicism, football, and zaniness.

Edited April 11, 2014 by thispersonstinks

[MaryMitch]

1.) Do something DEEPLY and fundamentally different from the other current American talk shows -- Graham Norton style "all at once" interviews.  This could be a VITAL point of difference between Colbert and the others.  If someone with the ability to reach the Colbert folks somehow reads this I beg of you to actually drop this idea in the right ears.

I think that's a GREAT idea!

[Zalyn]

1.) Do something DEEPLY and fundamentally different from the other current American talk shows -- Graham Norton style "all at once" interviews.  This could be a VITAL point of difference between Colbert and the others.  If someone with the ability to reach the Colbert folks somehow reads this I beg of you to actually drop this idea in the right ears.

Would you mind explaining more about what this is?  I'm not familiar with Graham Norton's style (and I rarely follow late night).

[mbutterfly]

I do like the idea of bringing writers on stage. Years ago Jack Paar did that so well, bringing on the best writers from television, films, and print media. Some were so brilliant they became semi-regulars. I think he should stay away from messes like Lindsay Lohan. So much better to develop his own collection of witty and fascinating personalities whom we don't often see. He could ease them in with the bigger names until they become popular. 

[Athena]

Would you mind explaining more about what this is?  I'm not familiar with Graham Norton's style (and I rarely follow late night).

Graham Norton is a talk show host in the UK.  He has one long couch where he sits about 3-4 people on it from the beginning of the show. There is usually at least one A-list celebrity, a comedian, and maybe another actor or TV personality. Sometimes it can be as many as five people on the couch. There is also a musical guest who joins in later. Norton allows for drinking on the show, and in fact, it's encouraged. He asks questions to all the guests and find segues between them. This results in people on the couch telling stories and intereacting with each other in way they normally wouldn't or haven't before. It's more akin to cocktail party in someone's home than a talk show. Graham does play around with the audience as well, but again, it all feels like everyone is part of the party. You can check out clips of Graham's shows on Youtube or visit us in the Graham Norton forum on this board.

Back to Stephen, I think he could definitely do this big couch style. Then again, Stephen is very good at the one on one interviews. I do think he should change the current US talk show format in some way. What I loved about TCR was how unique it was among the talk shows in that time slot.

Edited April 13, 2014 by Athena

[Kromm]

Graham Norton is a talk show host in the UK.  He has one long couch where he sits about 3-4 people on it from the beginning of the show. There is usually at least one A-list celebrity, a comedian, and maybe another actor or TV personality. Sometimes it can be as many as five people on the couch. There is also a musical guest who joins in later. Norton allows for drinking on the show, and in fact, it's encouraged. He asks questions to all the guests and find segues between them. This results in people on the couch telling stories and intereacting with each other in way they normally wouldn't or haven't before. It's more akin to cocktail party in someone's home than a talk show. Graham does play around with the audience as well, but again, it all feels like everyone is part of the party. 

The other thing it allows is getting a big slice of a movie cast, or popular TV show cast, all interacting with each other at the same time.  

The one like that which worked really excellently in the past year was when Norton had Matt Damon, Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville all on at once (they all starred together in The Monuments Men).  The movie apparently isn't all that great, but the talk show appearance certainly was.

Getting back to the first route---tossing together people who'd never meet otherwise and making them interact--this is easy for Norton because all he has to do is toss in a big A-list Hollywooder with some UK-only stand up comedian.  One imagines Colbert and his staff wouldn't have any trouble doing the same with US stand-up comedians, although unlike with the UK comedians there's at least a chance the Hollywood A-lister might have seen the work of the US stand-ups.  If Colbert wants to be a real smarty pants, he could even try tossing in authors or scientists or media pundits as the third person.  As long as the pre-interviews with the group indicates they can all find some common ground (or at least some patience while the host interviews one of the other people on the coach while they're sitting there listening).

[Kromm]

Okay, this got mentioned (by me) in another topic, but thinking about it most applies here.

Colbert needs to bring regular stand-up spots back to Late Night TV.

Johnny Carson always had huge pieces of his show dedicated to letting stand ups just do a set.  Letterman did too at one point, but kind of let that go by the wayside. Leno, of course, totally betrayed his past and did little to nothing to help his fellow stand-up comedians get network TV exposure. The rest (Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, even Ferguson) are maybe a little better than Leno, but not significantly. A comedian might get on the show occasionally, but there's rarely someone actually doing a set, and it's certainly not a FIXED part of the show (once a week would be enough).

[6 MeowMeowBeenz]

Graham Norton is a talk show host in the UK.  He has one long couch where he sits about 3-4 people on it from the beginning of the show

 

that actually sounds a lot like the old Dick Cavett show.Once he had Raquel Welch on with Janis Joplin. It was awesome, and it would be fun...no schtick, let there be a CONVERSATION instead of plugging stuff and trying too hard to be clever

[alynch]

Johnny Carson always had huge pieces of his show dedicated to letting stand ups just do a set.  Letterman did too at one point, but kind of let that go by the wayside. Leno, of course, totally betrayed his past and did little to nothing to help his fellow stand-up comedians get network TV exposure. The rest (Kimmel, Fallon, Meyers, even Ferguson) are maybe a little better than Leno, but not significantly. A comedian might get on the show occasionally, but there's rarely someone actually doing a set, and it's certainly not a FIXED part of the show (once a week would be enough).

Letterman has a stand-up on for a five minute set almost every Friday.

Edited April 14, 2014 by alynch

[trow125]

I think one of the all-time best examples of "multiple guests on a couch" came during the old Conan O'Brien show on NBC, when he had Courtney Thorne-Smith and Norm MacDonald. Watch this clip if you've never seen it before, because it is hilarious, but it also serves as a cautionary tale why celebs might not want to have a sharp-witted comedian nearby when they're trying to plug a terrible movie.

There is so little spontaneity these days with big name stars appearing on TV (or in magazines, for that matter)... their publicists micromanage everything to the nth degree. Nothing can be allowed to interfere with the Global Publicity Machine.

There was a news item a few weeks ago about talk show guests not being allowed to appear on other shows if they had already been slated to appear on Fallon's show. Personally, I'm fine with Jimmy monopolizing the Will Smiths and Nicolas Cages if that frees up Stephen to have more interesting guests.

[Captanne]

Bless you for bringing up Glenn Brenner.  Bless you.  *sob*

(Also?  I think having a nun make football picks is a great idea.  Even better than an octopus calling the futbol.) 

[thispersonstinks]

As alynne mentioned, Letterman still does have comics on the last show of the week. I wouldn't mind Colbert doing a Norton like show, but I wouldn't handle it on a daily basis. If he can do something like it weekly or once a month, I'm ok with that. It was also mention that everyone know somebody in the States, so it wouldn't work for spontaneity.

Actually, what I want to see is a comedian being a referee on Colbert's show for a week and tell him how he/she really feels about the show, like Stat Boy on PTI. The person won't sit next to Colbert, but will be watching in their "comedian room" and just analyze. On Friday, the person can perform their act.