While the transformation of the late-night talk show landscape isn’t complete, it took a giant leap into the future Tuesday when Stephen Colbert took over as host of “The Late Show.”
We're a generation after CBS created the show to stick a fork in the eye of NBC for a poor handoff between Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. For years, Carson's "The Tonight Show" successor was expected to be David Letterman.
Colbert waved to time-slot rival Jimmy Fallon in his premiere as a nod to viewers that this is not the acrimonious ratings war Letterman fought with Leno.
On opening night, Colbert trounced Fallon in the ratings, but that’s to be expected from a series premiere. While Colbert told his second audience Wednesday that the first night almost didn’t make it to air because of technical difficulties, Fallon was just a few remote clicks away, doing what he’s done since he took over from Leno last year: Redefining what it means to be a late-night host.
Fallon opened the night with Justin Timberlake (right) in their continuing “History of Rap” series, with the pair performing snippets of classics throughout hip-hop history. This installment touched on everything from LL Cool J’s “Rock the Bells” to Drake’s “Know Yourself” to the closer, the Beastie Boys' "Fight for Your Right."
Later in the broadcast, Fallon lost a lip-sync battle against daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, who dropped the mic triumphantly after a reading of Rihanna’s “B— Better Have My Money.”
For a man who entered the late-night game best known for laughing at his own jokes on “Saturday Night Live,” as well as a string of lackluster big-screen appearances that left him teetering on the edge of irrelevance, Fallon has come to represent a new wave in his field.
He’s not Carson, a witty, professional, jack-of-all-trades showman, and he’s not Leno, whose opening monologue was his biggest strength. He doesn't dip too heavily into politics, as Colbert did on Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report" with his right-wing parody character who shared his name.
But he is coming to define what it means to be a late-night host in the 21st century and in the 2010s, in particular, a man attuned to his time.
Fallon doesn’t seem to care if he’s even the star of his own show. He shares the stage with The Roots, the no-contest winner for greatest house band in late-night history. The fact the band is as game as the host to try new things makes them the perfect fit for the show.
Though Fallon is a soft interviewer, he knows his audience. He thinks beyond the hour his program airs, capturing the culture with bits that go viral. His lip sync battles, “Wheel of Musical Impressions” and unexpected moments – “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe rapping every word of “Alphabet Aerobics” by Sacramento’s Blackalicious, for one – are his bread and butter. He’s not content to sit behind the desk and hear his own voice. He’s more likely to ask a guest to play a silly game or tell a comedic anecdote.
Fallon feels like the torchbearer for a new age of late-night talk shows. Within a year, Comedy Central lost both Colbert and “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart, a crippling blow to a network which is set to answer with relative unknown Trevor Noah later this month. Stewart is now an executive producer of Colbert’s new program when he’s not pretending to crack John Cena in the ribs with a folding chair.
Throw in TBS’ goofy Conan O’Brien and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel, who earlier this week had on terrorist-thwarting, Travis Air Force Base-bound Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone, and we have almost a whole new slate of late-night talk show choices.
What viewers expect has changed. Fallon’s found the recipe for making his mark on the culture. He’s the closest to recapturing the spirit of his predecessors in creating indelible moments that people relive or discuss the next day.
With just two episodes under his belt as I write this, it’s too early to tell what kind of host Colbert will be, but something tells me CBS will give him a better chance to follow Letterman than NBC did for O’Brien to replace Leno.
It will be exciting to watch Colbert take on Fallon. He will have to carve out his own niche against Fallon’s carefree optimism. I’m curious to see how that plays out, but I bet Colbert, a man so fearless he dissed former President George W. Bush to his face, is up to the task.
Follow Nick DeCicco on Twitter @ndeciccodr.