THE COLBERT REPORT
The Colbert Report is a news commentary program in Comedy Central hosted by the Stephen Colbert. It features Colbert’s commentary on politics, current events, and the media. And oh, by the way, it’s pronounced Coal-BEAR Re-POOR, because bish, it’s French! Yes, you heard it right, it’s coal black bears reap poor!
It’s Stephen Colbert’s relentless pursuit of truthiness and his hard-hitting style of reporting make this news commentary program a hit among its viewers, going so far as becoming the number 1 TV show in all of America. In fact, the show has been emulated by other news anchor and hosts. To boot, The Colbert Report has won so many awards and recognitions that we’d tots run out of space if everything will be enumerated in this post, so never mind that!
Program: The Colbert Report
AKA: The No Fact Zone
Air Time: 11:30 PM EST and PST, Monday-Thursday
Tagline: The Truth Unfiltered by Rational Argument
The Beginning
Stephen Colbert, Ben Karlin and Jon Stewart came up with the idea of The Colbert Report after watching the Bill O’Reilly sexual harassment report. They felt that there was a need to keep the left-wing media in check because it seems that it is beginning to discredit the right. From that concept, The Colbert Report was born.
On October 17, 2005, the pilot episode of The Colbert Report was aired for a supposedly eight-week run. However, judging from the soaring ratings during its two-week run, the show was extended to one whole year with the existing run included to continue on until 2006.
It is every American’s duty to watch the show every single night. It is highly recommended that you take at least a capsule a day of the show, equivalent to 22 minutes of the show’s run. Watch the man himself, Stephen Colbert get into action every night at 11:30 PM on The Colbert Report, right after The Daily Show.
Program Format
The show starts with the teasers of the topics and guest/s, then followed by Stephen Colbert himself who delivers a verbal metaphor for how he will deliver truth to his viewers. The opening title sequence then follows. From hereon, this sequence follows:
- Initial recap of the headlines for the day;
- ‘The Wørd’ – Colbert’s commentary;
- Middle segment – this segment may vary but truthiness is maintained;
- An interview with the guest for the day;
- Closing statement from Dr. Stephen Colbert.
Dr. Stephen Colbert is witty and conversant, not to mention his unflappable balls, which make him an excellent interviewer. He is also known for his dominating style of interview.
Reception
From the first episode of The Colbert Report, women left and right have been experiencing the Colgasm phenomenon. If you’re a woman, and you haven’t experienced the Colgasm while watching the show, you should really be checked! The pilot episode of the show has also gained more than 1 billion views, with over 130% of The Daily Show viewership. To top it all of, The Colbert Report, upon its qualification for the Emmy’s in 2006, received all of the 28 awards!
Competition during the 11:30 talk timeslot has been completely obliterated! David Letterman turned to crystal meth, Ted Koppel retired in shame, and Jay Leno got a special needs operator to act as an announcer.
Truthiness
During the pilot episode of The Colbert Report during The Wørd segment, Stephen Colbert introduced the ‘truthiness’. Truthiness is the quality of knowing something without regard for evidence or facts, but rather based purely on gut instinct. Subsequently, truthiness took the entire nation by storm, gaining recognition and features from organizations such as the American Dialect Association and The New York Times.
The widespread influence of ‘truthiness’ has been greatly attributed to Stephen Colbert. However, there are also some organizations that talk about ‘truthiness’ without acknowledging Colbert and the source. Suffice it to say, they did receive an earful harping from the man of truthiness himself!
Awards
A year after the show has been launched, The Colbert Report went on to win 23 awards at the Emmy’s. More awards than what its parent show, The Daily Show, received.
Note: This list only features a few of the show’s awards. The space on here wouldn’t be enough to include everything!
- Best Comedy
- Best New Program
- Outstanding Patriotism in All of Television
- Most Influential Program
- Outstanding TV Host, Stephen Colbert
- Funniest TV Host, Stephen Colbert
- Most Awards Won
- Best Comedy Segment, The Wørd
- Hottest Man Ever, Stephen Colbert
- TV Host with the Biggest Balls (Left) (Right), Stephen Colbert
Trivia
- Baby Muggles, the Colbert Report’s theme song was composed and sung by Cheap Trick;
- ‘The Da Colbert Code’ which was Dr. Stephen’s brainchild was used to forecast the winners of five major movie awards in March 2, 2006;
- The Colbert Report readies you for love making!
- The eagle that figures in a number of things on The Colbert Report is named ‘Liberty‘;
- Wikiality.com was first mentioned during The Mention in October 18, 2006;
- Dr. Stephen Colbert is 1/13 Chickasaw Indian.