Bad..... John Stewart would have been better.
I agree....but this has been on the negotiation table for months. Jon Stewart, I think, asked for a heck of a lot of money. Colbert...maybe half that much (my hunch).
Here’s the thing...his gimmick of I’m-a-Republican-pretender act....has a limit, and won’t fit for the Late Night Show. His numbers will start to fall within six weeks, and after a year...there will be talk of him going away. He might get between two and three years out of this deal.
He might be a hit with college kids....but beyond Chicago and New York? No.
Stewart’s no fool...he’s already getting a paycheck that’s equal to that of Jimmy Fallon or David Letterman, on a cable show with much lower expectations (in terms of viewership). It’s also likely that Stewart would demand a greater share of the profits and some control over the 12:30 time slot, akin to what Letterman and Carson had in the prime. CBS will never grant that type of control again.
Meanwhile, Stewart can stay on Comedy Central, retain his title of critical darling and stay there as long as he wants (even if only he draws only 1.5 million viewers a night). Colbert will attract about 3 million a night on CBS, and get hammered for not closing the gap with Jimmy Fallon.
Jon Stewart already had a late night talk show in the 1990s.