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Colbert sees a surge, has now surpassed Fallon for #1 late-night talk show

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marrec

Banned
I don't remember Colbert being particularly tough on Trump when he was a guest on The Late Show. True he didn't ruffle Trump's hair.

He tried to call out Trump on a few specific things (didn't go balls deep or anything) and Trump just did that thing where he deflects to talk about unrelated and possibly non-existent other issues, which Colbert then called him out for.

It was much more combative than any other one on one interview.
 

Codeblue

Member
I hope the ratings boost means the show can move more towards the space TDS and TCR use to occupy. Meyers is already doing a great job with his Closer Look stuff, so I think it'd work in his current format.

And you actually believe that Colbert would have done different? Now thats funny.

Even ignoring him telling Bush that his administration was total trash, to his face, live on television, Colbert has a long, long, long history of telling politicians that they're awful in person. There's a reason members of congress were instructed not to be on his "Better Know a District" segment.
 

TheOfficeMut

Unconfirmed Member
Oh my god I lost it at Colbert greeting Scalia. lmaooo

Even better is the tape of Colbert pretending to be Press Secretary and acting just like Spicer. And Spicer is the actual Press Secretary. SMH
 

Pastulio

Banned
You mean NBC giving in to all his diva demands (including kicking out the guy who was number one in ratings for years when he was still number one and didnt want to quit)? Conan is one TBS because he failed. He got everything he wanted, and his show tanked in the ratings. The viewers spoke.

Leno got shit on playing nice publicly and acting as if he was ok with getting forced out from a job he still wanted to do, and then taking that job back when Conan shit the bed and went down in flames.

Wow, a whole lot of wrong in this thread... let me right some of that.

Leno promised the Tonight show to Conan for YEARS. Leno was close to retiring, but NBC still wanted to milk that money, so they worked out a deal where he would start his own show "The Jay Leno Show" and move it to the 10PM Time Slot. Conan would get Tonight Show, and Fallon the Late show.

The problem? Leno's show sucked at the 10PM time slot. They moved his best skits (Headlines, Stuff we found on Ebay, Jaywalking, etc.) to the half-hour instead of the beginning of the show, causing a massive loss in viewers.

So NBC made a desperate move to save the show and decided to move The Jay Leno Show to 11:30, the Tonight Show to 12:30, and the Late Show to 1:30. This bothered Conan because he felt the integrity of the Tonight Show was being compromised, so he wrote a letter to NBC and said he would not be a part of this transition, because moving The Tonight Show to 12:30 would kill it. So, Leno effectively said "Move the show, or I'm taking it back." and we all know what happened there.

Oh, and the Millions Conan got from NBC for leaving the show? He used a large portion of it to pay his staff for nearly a year+ after they all lost their jobs.
 

Mega

Banned
Well, Fallon sucks, so good.

I'm not really one to hold a single mistake against someone's entire career (everyone in the public eye is entitled to a screw-up or two), but the Trump segment was just disgustingly normalizing. A symbolic moment, but embarrassing for Fallon. I don't find him funny anyway, but that was really, really bad.

I understand the disgust around Trump's appearance on Fallon's show but I don't think it has any bearing on his recent ratings slide. I imagine the average person tuning in doesn't remember or never even saw that episode. They're just overall growing tired of Fallon.

Fallon was funny for some of the games he did with guests, but it got old and boring after a while. Colbert is just more funny and interesting to watch overall with the interviews en monologue.

Fallon has been playing it way too safe imo regarding his monologues, I like that Colbert hasn't been holding back.

I definitely think this is it. Everything has changed drastically in a few months and Fallon's safe inoffensive humor, aloof mannerisms and silly games are not what late night audiences want to see. Fallon acts like everyone's best pal and never takes a stand on anything. It's coming off as forced/fake in this climate and it's not what anyone wants at the moment.
 

Monocle

Member
Good, I detest Fallon. Nasty phony sycophant.

Colbert has genuine wit and charisma. He's warm, authentic, and very sharp.
 

Mega

Banned
Good, I detest Fallon. Nasty phony sycophant.

Colbert has genuine wit and charisma. Warm, authentic, and very sharp.

I've gone back and forth on this, but I don't think Fallon is a phony if you're referring to the awkward way he interacts with people and constantly laughs. He has been that way as a presenter/host outside of his talk show and especially during his entire SNL run where he break character because he couldn't stop giggling. It's his real personality.

FWIW, I work with someone with a similar social tick. She constantly laughs (for real) at almost everything. She's a really nice person but it can be grating when you're trying to focus on work and her giggling in the vicinity is piercing into your ears. I could walk over right now and greet her in a dumb accent and she'd burst into genuine laughter, just like Fallon. She can stop pretty abruptly.
 
T

thepotatoman

Unconfirmed Member
Watching it now. It's great.

I don't expect Trump to allow this shit to happen when his time comes around.

The press runs the event, not the white house. For someone like Romney, they wheel and deal and get someone like Drew Carey so that the White House stays involved as that is the primary intention of the event, but Trump's deal making abilities will probably just lead to him taking his ball and going home and the whole thing will become an unrelenting assault on Trump while Trump sits at home watching it on TV and complains about it on twitter.
 

Plinko

Wildcard berths that can't beat teams without a winning record should have homefield advantage
Wow, a whole lot of wrong in this thread... let me right some of that.

Leno promised the Tonight show to Conan for YEARS. Leno was close to retiring, but NBC still wanted to milk that money, so they worked out a deal where he would start his own show "The Jay Leno Show" and move it to the 10PM Time Slot. Conan would get Tonight Show, and Fallon the Late show.

The problem? Leno's show sucked at the 10PM time slot. They moved his best skits (Headlines, Stuff we found on Ebay, Jaywalking, etc.) to the half-hour instead of the beginning of the show, causing a massive loss in viewers.

So NBC made a desperate move to save the show and decided to move The Jay Leno Show to 11:30, the Tonight Show to 12:30, and the Late Show to 1:30. This bothered Conan because he felt the integrity of the Tonight Show was being compromised, so he wrote a letter to NBC and said he would not be a part of this transition, because moving The Tonight Show to 12:30 would kill it. So, Leno effectively said "Move the show, or I'm taking it back." and we all know what happened there.

Oh, and the Millions Conan got from NBC for leaving the show? He used a large portion of it to pay his staff for nearly a year+ after they all lost their jobs.

Look, I love Conan, but the poster you referred to is right about one thing: Conan's ratings were terrible in the Tonight Show slot. His style of humor didn't translate to that crowd. He's got a niche audience. I think he is great, but he appeals to nowhere near the broad audience Leno did with his milquetoast brand of humor.
 

Glix

Member
Look, I love Conan, but the poster you referred to is right about one thing: Conan's ratings were terrible in the Tonight Show slot. His style of humor didn't translate to that crowd. He's got a niche audience. I think he is great, but he appeals to nowhere near the broad audience Leno did with his milquetoast brand of humor.

That would make sense if Letterman never existed.
 

Abounder

Banned
I hope this is just one of many ratings losses that the godawful NBC congolemerate suffers, remember ya'll they're the ones that normalized the birther to reality TV stardom.

Colbert being king of late nite is a good place to be
 
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smokeymicpot

Beat EviLore at pool.
I hope this is just one of many ratings losses that the godawful NBC congolemerate suffers, remember ya'll they're the ones that normalized the birther to reality TV stardom.

Colbert being king of late nite is a good place to be

To be fair The Apprentice started in 2004. Way before the birther movement shit began.

Wtf haha Fallon has gotta be snorting coke before going on air if he reacts like that to Reggie

He is just openly excited about things. That is his whole thing.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
it's sad that people dropped Fallon only after the Trump episode, because that means they probably liked him before

There was nothing wrong with liking Fallon. He's inoffensive and did some fun stuff with celebrities.

But that's not what people want these days. I don't know if Fallon is simply ignorant as to what's going on in the world or if he's scared of pushing people away by going after Trump. It doesn't really matter, it's noticeable either way.

I usually DVR most of the late night stuff and skim through it when I have time but I haven't bothered with Fallon since the Trump incident. It's honestly embarrassing how tone deaf that was.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Look, I love Conan, but the poster you referred to is right about one thing: Conan's ratings were terrible in the Tonight Show slot. His style of humor didn't translate to that crowd. He's got a niche audience. I think he is great, but he appeals to nowhere near the broad audience Leno did with his milquetoast brand of humor.

He was on the air for seven damn months and Leno's half hour show impacted the ratings of local news and Conan's Tonight Show.

NBC set him up to fail. They completely and utterly fucked Conan over. If they had just stuck with Conan and not tried to cling to Leno, ratings would have ended up being just fine.
 

kavanf1

Member
Colbert's authenticity and his pointed commentary put him head and shoulders above Fallon. Colbert is Curb Your Enthusiasm to Fallon's Two and a Half Men.
 

Mega

Banned
There was nothing wrong with liking Fallon. He's inoffensive and did some fun stuff with celebrities.

But that's not what people want these days. I don't know if Fallon is simply ignorant as to what's going on in the world or if he's scared of pushing people away by going after Trump. It doesn't really matter, it's noticeable either way.

The latter except not because he's scared but because it isn't his style. He's a guy who wants to goof off, play ridiculous pointless games and laugh while everyone is having fun. He's not a Stewart, Colbert, Wilmore or Oliver type and never will be unless he dramatically shifts the tone of his show and his personality... which then means he's now really being a fake.

I really wish The Roots were on a better late night show. I want to support them but can't stomach anything else in that show outside of them.

Yeah. Love Fallon's music intro and after that I change the channel.
 

J_Viper

Member
I'm happy for him

I haven't watched the show in months since there was a stretch of time late last year where it was regularly pretty bad, but it must have improved in quality recently for this surge to happen.

I'll definitely give it another shot.
 
This is now the perfect time for CBS to can Colbert and slide in James Corden to the #1 Late Night show.

He sings in a car, people.

It fucking astounds me that unfunny muppet Corden is even famous enough to be a US talk show host.

That said, since Cowell the US has loved taking our crap 'celebrities'. Even Piers Morgan for fucks sake.

Fair play to Colbert though, he deserves it. I often find myself watching snippets from his shows on YouTube.
 
Jay Leno is a legend and an amazing comic talent. Lol at the haters still bitter about what he did to Conan, because the network wanted him back since conan's tonight show ratings were tanking
 

akira28

Member
yah I'm going to buy that old rumour that Fallon is drunk/high off his ass before his shows so he can 'fake laugh' on command
 
I thought Colbert's show was a bit rough around the edges when it was new, but I've started watching again recently and notice a marked improvement. Happy to hear ratings improved.

Yep. The only thing I genuinely miss of the early days is the old opening that made NYC look like SimCity 2013. That was really neat and original. Now it's just generic shots of the city :/

They even talked about the whole process of filming the opening in that style and put up the "full" video on YouTube with footage that doesn't show up in the actual show. I have no idea why they changed it.
 
Jay Leno is a legend and an amazing comic talent. Lol at the haters still bitter about what he did to Conan, because the network wanted him back since conan's tonight show ratings were tanking

If only Conan had a decent lead-in and time to build an audience, which took Leno over a year to achieve back in 1993.

Can't remember which asshole was Conan's lead-in but their ratings were abysmal.
 
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