Colbert: First show nearly didn’t make it

The GOP front-runner is poised to appear Friday on NBC’s “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon.

[Stephen Colbert’s first “Late Show“: A busy, but honest start].

Another choice bit of comedy was a sketch involving a cursed amulet that forces the host to include product placement in his new show. If Colbert hadn’t done a surprising and moving – if sycophantic – interview with Joe Biden on Thursday I might have despaired completely over the current state of that part of the daily TV schedule that used to be reserved for audiences of card-carrying civilized grown-ups and ever-hopeful consumers of TV adventure. “And I’m saving that for Sweeps”.

Despite being the butt of jokes with premiere night guest Jeb Bush, Donald Trump will appear on Late Show with Stephen Colbert next week.

Interestingly, Colbert also doesn’t seem to share the stage with a sidekick in the way that David Letterman did with bandleader Paul Shaffer, or Conan O’Brien did with announcer Andy Richter.

Colbert’s highly anticipated debut on Tuesday was watched by 6.6 million viewers, but viewership fell 44% to 3.7 million on his second night.

Colbert may not be hosting a political spoof show anymore, but he’s still booking a lot of guests who are in politics. Now he can ask the presidential candidate about his ban on eating Oreos, and about whether his hat is giving him the advantage in the polls.

Deep down inside, I think Colbert knows that the biggest thing missing from network late-night is what he and Jon Stewart could provide – an actual home for discussion that flirted with intelligence and even a smattering of intellectualism.

The house band, Jean Batiste and Stay Human, is also unique.