The Daily Late Nightly Show (Is It Always Sunny?)

The New Guy

Debates

Trevor’s guests this week-

• Tuesday 1/19: Jess Glynne
• Wednesday 1/20: Gael Garcia Bernal
• Thursday 1/21: Marlon Wayans

Mr. Continuity

Rebranding

Larry’s panelists this week-

• Monday 1/18: Rembert Browne
• Tuesday 1/19: Romany Malco
• Wednesday 1/20: Dan Savage
• Thursday 1/21: Jemele Hill

Mr. Mainstream

MLK Day

Stephen Colbert’s radical vulnerability: Talking frankly about race could be a game-changer for his moderate white audience
by Sonia Saraiya, Salon
Tuesday, Jan 19, 2016 01:34 PM EST

In the months since Colbert has taken what was once David Letterman’s seat—and has evolved out of his put-on hyper-conservative agenda towards a more authentic persona—he has struggled, I think, to strike the right note of political engagement. It’s an understandable struggle. Politics clearly matters a great deal to Colbert, but there’s a certain amount of flexibility—and plausible deniability—as a comic performer that isn’t quite available as a late-night host. Much like a politician, Colbert is very aware of the average American’s response to politics; unlike a politician, though, Colbert doesn’t pander. Much like the ethos of his friend and former coworker Jon Stewart, Colbert’s angle is always to make the average person see reason. This sometimes puts him in sticky situations — especially from his liberal base, who has been busy seeing reason for some time now, thank you — but his interview with McKesson is a nice reminder of why Colbert resonates as the “Late Show” host.

And it’s precisely because Colbert is the establishment, but wants to do better. There is no magical hand-waving that gets around the fact that despite being a wacky sketch comedian mostly famous for being a (fake) reactionary politician who ran a (real) campaign for president, Stephen Colbert is a straight white guy from South Carolina. He might be politically liberal, but he’s not a liberal choice for a talk-show host, in a landscape that is dominated by—as that Vanity Fair cover reminded us—comedians who look just like him.

I surmise that for Colbert’s interview with McKesson, the comedian was playing even more establishment than usual, in an attempt to bring in the members of the audience who might be alienated by a black activist on their safe late-night entertainment. There was something a bit maddening about Colbert asking McKesson to define “white privilege”—is there anything more inherently “white privilege” than that question, especially when asked to an overqualified activist whose whole life is dedicated to combating white privilege?—and Colbert revived the question about “All Lives Matter,” the counter-movement, of sorts, to “Black Lives Matter.” To the hip and savvy liberal viewer, it felt a bit like rehashing much-discussed, already shelved topics. But I think Colbert was deliberately trying to draw in the moderate, defensive, and possibly confused listener; it’s hard to say, the morning after, if this kind of handholding through the issues worked for his audience, but it certainly is more good-faith bipartisan work than occurs most days in Washington.

Stephen’s guests this week-

• Tuesday 1/19: Charlie Day, Colin Hanks, Margo Price
• Wednesday 1/20: Brandon Marshall, Sarah Koenig, Rev Run
• Thursday 1/21: Christian Slater, Josh Radnor, Iggy Pop
• Friday 1/22: Steven Tyler, Gaby Hoffman, Lapsley

Charlie Day is probably on to talk about his new movie The Hollars set for a January 29th release, but he might mention It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which started its 11th season January 6th.