Despite the news of Terminal City’s demise, not all of the media headlines are gloomy on this Hallowe’en Monday.
From the Comedy Network, news that the Colbert Report will soon be part of our late-night lives:
The most compelling fake news timeslot on TV is expanding to 60 minutes. CTV announced today that it has reached a deal with MTV Networks International (MTVI) to bring the critically-acclaimed Daily Show spin-off The Colbert Report to Canada….
What The Daily Show is to news, The Colbert Report is to the smorgasbord of personality-driven, pundit programming – except intentionally funny. Colbert may have the same arrogance, self-reverence and tunnel vision as Bill O’Reilly, Anderson Cooper, Geraldo Rivera, Joe Scarborough and Aaron Brown – but on purpose.
What’s the only news that could make this even better? How about the fact that the very next night, Rick Mercer returns to the CBC? Tuesday, November 8 at 8:00 p.m., the Rick Mercer Report (I guess keeping the name “Monday Report” would have been confusing given the shift to Tuesdays, but somehow that appeals to me) launches its latest season.
Living in the US and watching the Colbert Report for a couple of weeks now, I can report that it is indeed funny. But not nearly as clever as the Daily Show. Give it time, perhaps. But the main problem is the same one that bedevils Rick Mercer’s show: the reliance on one person’s wit to sustain all 22 minutes of the program. Mercer works because he’s only on once a week. Colbert should perhaps consider withdrawing to a similar schedule, as it’s hard to deal with him four nights a week. Like those SNL sketches, that are great 3 minutes gags, but make for terrible 90-minute movies.
One more frigging thing to keep me from having a sane bedtime. Damn you, Colbert!
Yes!!!