When “King of All Media” Howard Stern heard the news in 2014 that Stephen Colbert would give up his Comedy Central throne to work the regulation talk show format among the Jimmys (Fallon and Kimmel), Stern said: “I don’t know if that was the right choice for him.” Stern figured Colbert wouldn’t be as happy or creatively free at CBS. They’d “start giving him notes,” Stern said, and sap the life from his art. True to Stern’s words, Colbert has languished in his late night chair.
Knowing Stern — and the ratings — weren’t wrong, Stephen Colbert broke out his satirical Colbert Report persona for his CBS show’s Republican National Convention coverage. (He even brought pal Jon Stewart along.) Seeing the old “Stephen” was like hearing Paul Simon sing “Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?” Simon follows that famous line with “a nation turns its lonely eyes to you.” Nation? Yes, for the better part of a decade Stephen Colbert did the most incisive political comedy on TV performing for what he called the “Colbert Nation.” The Nation would love to have him back. Where have you gone, Stephen Colbert the satirist? Howard Stern knows he probably has just received too many notes.
At the center of power at the RNC pic.twitter.com/R8kBtEI7Hq
— Stephen Colbert (@StephenAtHome) July 17, 2016
