‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ begins with Jimmy Fallon cameo, David Letterman tribute

Tonight marks the premiere of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” and for the most part, we feel like this was a premiere that was very much worth celebrating. It gave you a little bit of the Stephen Colbert of “The Colbert Report” with some of the political comedy, but also a very different sort of interview than we’ve been accustomed to seeing. He’s actually more of a conversationalist than someone attacking people with this question or that one.

The real highlight of the show actually came before the guests came out, mostly when he was going at Donald Trump while stuffing Oreos in his mouth, and then when he had a nice tribute to David Letterman and also a cameo from Jimmy Fallon, who is not his timeslot competitor over on NBC. This is not going to be a “war,” as the two seem to genuinely like each other.

The thing that Stephen does still have to figure out slightly is his own tone and skill as an interviewer, namely in that the whole chat with Jeb Bush was mostly uneventful. Jeb dodged several of his questions, seemed there just to be be somewhat-goofy, and to apparently campaign to Stephen’s own brother in the audience, who he differs from politically by a pretty wide margin.

In the end, we’d say that it was mostly a successfully first outing. Jon Batiste and Stay Human are an excellent house band, the interviews have a chance to be thoughtful and intelligent, and Colbert is both smart and hilarious. That’s a rare combination these days.

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