On a visit to the late-night show he’ll take over next year, Stephen Colbert said he’s “thrilled” to be succeeding David Letterman.
The Comedy Central host told Letterman on CBS’ Late Show on Tuesday he’s going to do whatever Letterman has done. Letterman urges against it, saying, “You don’t want to do that.”
Letterman greeted Colbert warmly with Letterman introducing him as “very talented” and “always entertaining,” and the two men posed for the obligatory selfie.
Letterman then offered an endorsement, saying CBS “could have just as easily hired another boob” like him.
Letterman is retiring next year. The Late Show released a 90-second clip of Colbert’s appearance, taped for broadcast later.
Colbert also revealed that he almost worked for Letterman — twice.
It was a different visit in 1986, the year that Colbert, now 49, graduated from Northwestern. Letterman was working at NBC then, and Colbert said he accompanied his girlfriend to New York, where she was interviewing for an internship at Letterman’s show.
In an odd turn of events, Colbert said he was hired instead of his soon-to-be ex-girlfriend. But he turned the job down.
“I did not take the internship because you do not pay people,” he said. “The next job I’m taking, that pays, right? Because I’ve already signed.”
Eleven years later, Colbert said he and his writing partner submitted a packet of material to the Late Show, hoping to join the writing staff. He said no one from the show got back to them for four months, and by then Comedy Central had already hired Colbert to do the show Strangers With Candy.
Colbert pulled out a card and read the Top Ten list that he and his partner had submitted 14 years ago to try to get the job. The list, written around the holidays, was “Top Ten Cocktails for Santa.”
Late Show producers inserted the traditional prepared intro that runs before Letterman’s Top Ten list every night, for which the current host feigned outrage.
“He doesn’t have the job yet,” he said. “Don’t let the door hit you in the a**.”
Colbert said that “obviously, I’m thrilled” to have the job. The Colbert Report on Comedy Central will continue through the end of this year. The date of Letterman’s exit and Colbert’s debut on the Late Show hasn’t been set.
