The television industry, it waits for no one. The seats in the Ed Sullivan Theatre hadn’t even lost all their butt heat before crews starting moving in to raze the tenured and iconic set of The Late Show with David Letterman in preparing for the transition to Stephen Colbert‘s new reign of late night terror. Hell, even keen observers spotted the fact that the theatre’s Broadway marquee was taken down in double time.
Wow, @Letterman‘s Late Show marquee has already been taken down. Ed Sullivan theater this morning. pic.twitter.com/PG3tv6Pg9B
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) May 28, 2015
Rather than linger on the past, things are moving forward towards Colbert’s CBS premiere date of September 8th.
And in preparation for that, the show has launched its social media channels with a little glimpse into the pure insanity that is the pre-production phase.
With no actual filming or show to go to since last December, Colbert appears to have gone delightfully, wonderfully mad, posting a video today eulogising his beloved between-shows beard that the internet latched onto and adored so much. The Colbeard, as it became known.
CBS executives like their white late night hosts clean shaven – unless writer’s strikes are in effect, of course – and thus Colbert says goodbye to his new friend whilst trying out a few different looks.
It’s a bloody laugh-and-a-half, we tell you.
The social media assault also includes launching an official website, Twitter account, Facebook page, Podcast entitled “In the Bad Room with Stephen” (in which he suggests that the show could well be titled “The Late Show with: Starring Stephen Colbert” in a hilarious nod to Letterman, and to Colbert’s trademark grammatical gymnastic humour), as well as an iOS app called Colbr.
If this kind of straight-up madness continues, we’re probably in for one hell of a ride come September.
