The New Guys

Scott Hardie | August 30, 2015
How do you think Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah will do when their respective relaunched shows (The Late Show and The Daily Show) debut next month? I mean that question in terms of creativity, audience perception, and plain ratings. Might either of them fare so badly as to be canceled within a year?

Erik Bates | August 31, 2015
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Scott Hardie | September 5, 2015
Have you seen the videos that Colbert's production team released over the summer? Some of them are pretty good. He seems to have kept his feistiness (combativeness?) and quick wit, but added more curiosity and calmed down a little.

What gives me hope that Colbert's show will be special is the list of guests so far: His first two weeks will reportedly feature Jeb Bush, Elon Musk, Stephen King, Travis Kalanick, Stephen Breyer, Bernie Sanders, and Ban Ki-Moon. He will still feature plenty of more typical celebrities, but he's clearly interested in expanding the late-night conversation to include more than showbiz anecdotes and movie plugs. I can't imagine what Jimmy Fallon or Jimmy Kimmel or Conan O'Brien would ask most of those people. They'd be too busy trying to corral them into some wacky viral video rather than actually conversing with them. Colbert already seems like the smartest and most interesting talk-show host in late night and his show hasn't even debuted yet.

Noah cannot possibly live up to the impossible expectations after Stewart, but if he can ride that out for a few years and not alienate people, he will eventually emerge as his own worthy voice on TV. A once-unknown O'Brien managed this feat after taking over for Letterman at NBC, but he did almost get canceled a few times along the way, so there's no telling whether Noah will make it. (Come to think of it, I recall the filmed bit that O'Brien used to open his very first Late NIght, about the pressure to succeed Letterman. It could just as well apply to Noah today.)

Scott Hardie | October 18, 2015
As it turns out, both Colbert and Noah are doing quite well, creatively and in terms of ratings. I'm impressed with both shows, and with Colbert's willingness to keep it nerdy.

The only consistent weakness so far in either show is Noah's interviewing skills. Jon Stewart was a comic with the heart of a journalist, but Noah is just a comic and doesn't seem terribly interested in his interviews so far, or at all confident doing them. It makes me wonder if the show would be better off scrapping some or all of the interviews and just turning over the third segment to more comedy. If they have to keep the interviews, propping them up with more structure might help, like Larry Wilmore's "Keep It 100" or, going way back in time, Craig Kilborn's "5 Questions."

Scott Hardie | February 5, 2016
Yikes. Trevor Noah's Daily Show seems to be aiming much lower, for viewers who are not very knowledgeable about politics at all. Perhaps it's a mandate from Comedy Central that they aim for younger viewers, like high school and college? Last week, the show did a profile of Bernie Sanders that explained who he was and what his campaign platform was. This week, they did a segment explaining what the Iowa caucuses are and why they get so much news coverage. I cannot imagine Jon Stewart explaining either of those with anything more than a single sentence to catch up the less-informed viewers in the middle of a larger bit; Stewart's intended audience was smarter and savvier than that and would have already known that information. I have heard of several longtime viewers defecting over Noah's dumbing-down approach (or the one represented by his hosting; it might not be his decision at all). I'm not anywhere near ready to give up on this show that I've enjoyed for years, but I'm apprehensive about watching bits that explain what the Republican National Convention is or how the electoral college works.

Samir Mehta | February 5, 2016
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Scott Hardie | February 7, 2016
Perhaps that's true. We'll see where this leads. I'm prepared to give Noah time to build the show. He's of course not as good as Stewart's well-considered best days, but he's regularly surpassing Stewart's lazy bad days, and he remains full of potential.

Scott Hardie | August 6, 2016
You probably already saw or heard about Jon Stewart borrowing Stephen Colbert's show for a few minutes recently, but if not, check it out; it's marvelous:



Jon Stewart meant satirical harm to his old nemesis Fox News, but the most damage done is to Trevor Noah and the current Daily Show. In ten minutes, Jon Stewart is funnier and more provocative and more engaged than the entire last year of that show he left behind. He demonstrates just how badly they've been slacking, and how poorly Noah measures up to him. Prior to this video, I was skeptical of claims that Noah was vastly inferior to Stewart, but consider me a convert.