When former Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert takes over David Letterman's chair on "The Late Show" on Sept. 8, he'll be joined by actor George Clooney and presidential contender Jeb Bush.
As The New York Times first reported, the full week's guest lineup is as follows:
- Sept. 9 - Actress Scarlett Johansson, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and rapper Kendrick Lamar.
- Sept. 10 - Travis Kalanick, Uber CEO, and country singer Toby Keith.
- Sept. 11 - Comedian Amy Schumer, author Stephen King, and Paul Simon tribute band Troubled Waters.
Vanity Fair magazine noted that, "No concrete info to be found online about a musical group called 'Troubled Waters,' so we’re guessing this is a special Colbert week-ending surprise. Perhaps a Simon and Garfunkel reunion?"
The magazine commented that the first week's lineup shows that "Colbert is staying true to his word to bring something completely new to network late night" by front-loading his first week with "tech giants and a horror author who’s not exactly the hottest ticket in town."
The New York Post explained that beyond the age-old, late-night ratings battle between CBS (Colbert), NBC (Jimmy Fallon), and ABC (Jimmy Kimmel), the former Comedy Central host will also be waging a war for online viewers. More and more people skip picking up the remote these days, and navigate to YouTube to watch clips from last night's shows.
"The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" has had a lot of success with its star-studded lip sync battle clips, with actress Emma Stone's segment pulling down 58 million views alone.
Jimmy Kimmel has also had online success with his own celebrity-heavy segment called "Mean Tweets," wherein stars read mean things people have said about them on social media.
Ahead of its debut, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" has nearly 125,000 YouTube subscribers, and the host's "Colbeard" video has over 2 million views.
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