The Colbert Report came and went. Now The Late Show With Stephen Colbert has come and gone. For no good reason. In fact, CBS BS claims aside, it was for a very bad reason, named Trump.
Having Paul McCartney and Elvis Costello present for Stephen’s Last Show made the farewell special for me. There is no “best” Beatles song, but forced to choose one Beatles song as my favorite, over all others, it would be ‘Hello Goodbye’.
I’m not done with Colbert yet, as I await the delayed delivery of my Last Show t-shirt.
Stephen autographing his ‘Best of The Colbert Report’ DVD for me at the NYTimes Center, November 2007. Photo by Denro.
David Letterman was feeling his Indiana oats, and he pretty much took over last night’s show from Stephen Colbert. Letterman is his own, unique kind of stunt man.
Over at News From Mark Evanier, he’s been talking about the soon to end Late Show With Stephen Colbert.
The New York Times — for those of you who can pass beyond its paywall — has an interview with David Letterman about the end of The Late Show and this essay by critic Jason Zinoman about what it all means to us.
I wasn’t kidding about taking some days off. I just didn’t say whether or not they’d all be consecutive. 😉
The first time I posted something about Stephen Colbert was two weeks after starting this weblog,* during the second term of George W. Bush’s presidency. What an aggravating, time consuming struggle it was back then, capturing video and getting it to play online!
How long ago was that? For a reference, three weeks later, Google announced its intention to buy YouTube. Steve Jobs was four months away from introducing the iPhone.
Here we are today, twenty years later, and Colbert is in the crosshairs of the petty, childish, vindictive, and incompetent yet dangerous, President of the United States. Bush was only one of those pejoratives. Stephen is righteously pissed off, and he has every reason to be.
Here is the interview Colbert wasn’t allowed to air on broadcast television.
Everyone, myself included, underestimated Trump’s ability to succeed as a con man. Obama most of all, as Peter Baker writes about in one of his typically compelling and readable reports.
* dograt.com had been live since 2002, with a set of static web pages. They were written with Microsoft Front Page, along with some HTML manual editing.
Besides being unfit for the highest elected office of the land, and in addition to his other medical conditions, the current President of the United States suffers from Colbert Derangement Syndrome.
Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success. Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, “put him to sleep,” NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!
– Donald J. Trump, Dec 24, 2025, 12:16 AM
His alcoholic personality keeps him from realizing that Colbert, and the other entertainers he hates, want to set him off so he goes on an unhinged rant. Even reporters now seem to enjoy triggering an outburst.
