A few hours after CBS announced that he would take over The Late Show from David Letterman, Stephen Colbert addressed the news on The Colbert Report: "This man has influenced every host who came after him and even a few who came before him—he's that good... I do not envy whoever they try to put in that chair. Folks, those are some huge shoes to fill."
Colbert opened by noting Letterman's retirements, "I am gonna miss this good man. Dave has been on the air my entire adult life. Late Night debuted by my first year of college. I learned more from watching Dave than I did from going to my classes, especially the ones I did not go to because I stayed up till 1:30 watching Dave."
A half hour earlier, Jon Stewart discussed the big move and showed a clip of Colbert when he was on The Daily Show, "By the way we spent all day looking up old stuff of Stephen on the Internet, it's really fun… I mean, working, we were working. Truly one of the great pleasures of doing this show has been trying to maintain professional composure whilst Mr. Colbert is making me laugh uncontrollably."
Stewart was very proud:
The exciting news today is that I no longer need a cable subscription to have the privilege of watching Stephen Colbert. Our good friend Stephen Colbert will be heading to CBS to take over The Late Show from—for at least me—the comedian broadcaster who is the best there ever was, David Letterman… And here's the exciting thing for me and I think Stephen Colbert is up to the challenge.
While we wish Dave the absolute best for a well-earned retirement, there is no greater joy than to seeing a genuinely good man who works as hard as he can every day and deserves all the success in the world actually get that success. For Stephen we're just thrilled.
Here's what I'm looking forward to: Being able to walk down Broadway and look up at the Ed Sullivan Theater marquee and see "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Assuming of course that is is where they tape it. There is of course a theater across from us here which I believe is currently referred to as The Hustler Club.
Letterman himself is happy about his successor: He said, "Stephen has always been a real friend to me. I’m very excited for him, and I’m flattered that CBS chose him. I also happen to know they wanted another guy with glasses."
