This is the second straight day an election-centric live program featuring Colbert has been announced. Showtime boss man David Nevins announced today that the network is working on sealing up an agreement that would pin Stephen Colbert as host of a live election night special.
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Showtime is in talks with Stephen Colbert to host a live election-night comedy special, the channel’s chief executive said.
CBS entertainment chief Glenn Geller was asked at a meeting of TV critics Wednesday if negotiations were underway to allow Colbert to use more of his old character.
While Nevins classed the news as a “half-announcement” because the deal has not been finalized yet, he noted, “I think it’s gonna happen – Stephen wants to do it, I want to do it, the studio wants to do it”. “Stephen wants to do it, I want to do it”.
The live shows also produced the late-night show’s most viral clips to date: one with Jon Stewart, the other with Broadway star Laura Benanti impersonating Melania Trump.
Colbert, who is in his first-season transition from his Comedy Central series “The Colbert Report”, clearly reveled in making his CBS show more topical with convention comedy. It’s something I’ve been trying to get him to do for a while; he sort of woke up and said, ‘Yeah, that’s something I’d like to do.’ He’s not on CBS that night anyway. He’s done that for both conventions with “The Late Show” on CBS, and there are plans in place for him to do so during some of the debates. “We want to have stuff we feel is culturally relevant”.
The concept: “Colbert unfettered”, Nevins continued, adding, “He’s promised he will say a couple of curse words”.
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Showtime’s direct-to-consumer service, which launched last summer, now has more than 1 million subscribers “with no cannibalization of the base business”, said Nevins.
