this is really? yep. this is you actually did this? yes, i did. wow. the thought of david letterman retiring, leaving, there was a healthy denial until it was real because he was the jewel in the crown. for god s sakes, the man put a camera on a monkey. it seems so simple now. everything i learned about late night television, i learned from watching david letterman. in the last couple of months you had every great star who had been on the show came and paid tribute. the only thing have i left to do for the last time on a television program, thank you and good night. [ cheers and applause ] he was the voice of a true generation and reinvented television for that generation. this man has influenced every host who came after him and even a few who came before him, he s that good.
so i was really hoping that abc would cancel the show because i felt like i can t do this anymore. i can t deal with so much stress. have a good weekend, everybody. i m getting the hell out of here. good night. i ll be honest with you. it s beginning to look like i m not going to get the tonight show. when institutions move from one caretaker to another, there is upheaval in people s lives. hey, trevor. what s happening? could you give me like 20 more minutes? the internet has changed everything. we didn t know what we were doing. we could have had it all and then late night is hit with the biggest challenge it has ever faced. time for social distancing,
daily show. is there a party or anything? i brought a lot of people from cbs and i told them that i know you. why wouldn t he leave? gets his own show on network television. he s got a band. he s got his own theater. new york city, it s stephen colbert! thank you for all joining me for my first episode of the late show with starring stephen colbert. it is a very specific trial by fire when you re taking over for david letterman. and i don t care how funny you might have been. you re now trying to gain the trust and acceptance and most importantly the laughs of the people who are used to somebody else. this is the first time that i have just been myself. when i got the offer to do the show i said, you know, i m an actor. if i go take that gig, that would be the first thing that i would ever do in my career that s not acting. having been on comedy central, having a character, he himself was somewhat removed from the audience, but when you
didn t invite, you didn t vote for, you didn t get to choose. now seeing as this is my first show, we wanted to start it off with something a little light. so here we go. syria. i m sure trevor noah struck a lot of people as a gigantic missed opportunity. i mean very talented guy, but not even an american guy. there was articles written at the time, they should just cancel the daily show. i remember having a conversation with him, i go trevor, aren t you nervous? he said hey, if this all doesn t work out, i can just fall back on poverty. isn t that the best response? it was a firestorm the likes of which i ve never experienced. the most important thing for me was i was never trying to be a clone of jon stewart. and i think that s one of the things jon liked about me. one thing i really pushed was getting the daily show online. john did not care about having the show be online. i said why? where are we on facebook? where are we on instagram? where are we on twitter? for me
hi. hi, honey. thank you for doing this. shout-out to youtubers who have been doing this for a long time and making us pros look like real dopes this week. the internet was what late night was, which is experimental. it forces you to find new ways to be funny. oh, come in. andy, yeah. oh, good to see you, buddy. we were challenged to make the show in a new way. if i m going to cut my hair in my own house, i want the authentic black barbershop. look at what else i got. i got the second phone y all be having so you can talk to a girl, what s going on, baby. roy, stop it. please welcome to a late show, daniel radcliffe. thank you so much for doing this. can t hear a word, but you look very nice. you could see as each episode goes, the video quality gets better. the sound quality gets better. so what covid did was it pushed forward the evolution of