The Late Show: Stephen Colbert versus David Letterman

It was a long while ago when I first did a comparison of two late night talk show hosts. There was a shift a while ago where nearly every host was replaced by a different host for one reason or another. I think that it is time to compare The Late Show version that David Letterman did versus the one that Stephen Colbert is doing. Let’s get to it, shall we?

What was David Letterman like? He had quite a quirky personality and would often do pranks of some various sorts from time to time. His most notable bit was the top ten where he would mention ten jokes relating to a topic of some sort. His format seems to have remained the most structured of all of the late night shows with little being different from show to show.

How he was good: He seemed fairly laid back and was quite a good host the whole time. He never had many problems with hosting that we can see from time to time with others. His style worked well for the most part and none of his bits seemed dumb like we can get from time to time.

How he was bad: He might not have seemed as weird as most good hosts are like. It could often seem like he was siding with one political side all the time with barely any mention of the other side. Some of his recurring bits could be quite dumb and made even more annoying because they kept happening over and over again.

What is Stephen Colbert like? He is highly eccentric which often works well. He reports on the news a lot in great detail, often poking fun at different issues that they do. His version is very political and even has political guests a lot more than you’d see on other shows like this.

How he is good: His antics are normally always entertaining with very few issues. He proves that he does not need a sidekick to keep things interesting. One can often get a lot out of his show, specifically his take on what is going on in the world.

How he is bad: It would seem quite often that his politics are often too biased in one way which might anger some of the other party. It can seem like he rushes through his guests too much in an attempt to fit everything into what’s going on in the show.

Who do I like better? This is hard for me to say. I’m not sure that there is one that I prefer to the other. I had known David’s show for so long that it is hard to think of anyone else doing it better. But Stephen does the show quite well. I’d have to say that since David was more simple with what he did, that I’d put Stephen as the slightly better host. If you aren’t into politics, then David is clearly the better person for you to watch. Of course, you might be better off with a different late night show.

I can’t think of anything else to say outside of this closing that I normally put in most of my blogs. It is hard to tell for sure when different posts of this blog will be. I’m still not done with the posts that are on Mondays just yet and I’ll be sure to tell you when I am done with that. Always keep an eye out for a post in this blog as you never know when it might come.