Just 24 hours after David Letterman announced his retirement from The Late Show, a new report says Stephen Colbert is CBS’ top choice for the vacated gig.
Mashable reports that CBS and Colbert have had no formal contract discussions, but sources tell the publication that “he first engaged with network executives while Letterman was still mulling the timing of his retirement.” And despite talks with other personalities like Jon Stewart, Colbert is “currently the front-and-center candidate.”
Related: Nine possible David Letterman replacements
CBS and Comedy Central had nothing fruitful to say about the report when pressed by Mashable.
Former Deadline founder Nikki Finke reported similar news about Colbert on Twitter yesterday:
Letterman 2015 Replacement: My sources say Stephen Colbert "the only one on the air currently that CBS is considering."
— Nikki Finke (@NikkiFinke) April 3, 2014
Stephen Colbert’s contract with Comedy Central for Colbert Report ends at the end of this year, which would obviously make him available in 2015 if CBS offered him the job. The general agreement about whoever replaces Letterman is that the person needs to appeal to a younger demographic in order to compete with Jimmy Kimmel and Jimmy Fallon.
One big question is what kind of personality Colbert will deliver on a network, late night talk show. On his Colbert Report he stays in character as a conservative talk show host like the ones that are seen across 24-hour news channels every day.
Colbert got his start as a correspondent on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show in 1997 and has hosted his spinoff show since 2005. The two shows air back-to-back Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central.
The comedian and television personality made headlines last week for an out-of-context tweet on the show’s Twitter account. The account was deleted by Colbert on the next new episode of his show.
For fun, here’s video of Colbert appearing on Letterman late last year:
