Last night’s show was a special one on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The famous late-night host held a quasi-reunion for The Daily Show, the Comedy Central program on which Colbert got his start in show business as a field reporter and correspondent, inviting other past Daily Show correspondents Samantha Bee, John Oliver, Ed Helms, and Rob Corddry as guests on the show. Colbert also had past Daily Show host Jon Stewart on as The Late Show’s main guest.
CBS reports that Colbert kicked off the night by first having one-on-one interview with Jon Stewart. Stewart started by jokingly reprimanding Colbert for his controversy last week in which he insulted President Trump with some choice language, leading to some backlash. “I’ve been reading about you. I’ve been seeing about you in the news,” Stewart humorously warned Colbert. “You have a potty mouth.” Colbert responded with a rib to Stewart: “That I do. But might I say: I learned it from you, Dad.”
The two long-time friends discussed a wide array of topics ranging from personal to political, including how Stewart has been handling his retirement from host of The Daily Show, Bill O’Reilly’s firing from Fox News, and President Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey. The interview eventually circled back to the controversy surrounding Colbert’s comments on Trump last week, and Stewart ended the interview by expressing his bemusement over the entire situation. “The things that you say – even if they’re crass, or even if they in some ways are not respectful enough to the Office of the Presidency, we can insult. He can injure,” Stewart pointed out. “For the life of me, I do not understand why, in this country, we try and hold comedians to a standard we do not hold leaders to.”
Colbert then moved on to a wider Daily Show reunion, bringing Bee, Oliver, Helms, and Corddry on stage to join him and Stewart. Colbert and his guests reviewed the history of The Daily Show and all of their individual involvements on it. Colbert replayed clips of each of their early field reports, and the comedians went around and described some of their most memorable field assignments (including Colbert relaying a story about how he and his producers had to run away from an angry group of KKK members one night). Colbert ended by warmly stating, “This is what it was like to hang out backstage for years at The Daily Show.”
The six comedians also did a “flashback” skit about what it was like working on The Daily Show back in 2005. The Late Show’s official twitter account posted a photo of the past Daily Show gang.
The Daily Show is now hosted by Trevor Noah and airs weeknights at 11pm on Comedy Central.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert airs weeknights at 11:35pm on CBS.