Showtime president David Nevins has announced that Colbert has been picked to host a live election night special for the premium cable network, speaking at a stop on the Television Critics Association summer press tour. While the deal is yet to be hashed out, it’s understood that there’s interest from both sides.
Colbert has already been given the night off from The Late Show on election night, according to a report from Variety. Between this detail, and the fact that Showtime is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CBS Corporation, there shouldn’t be any barriers preventing him from hosting the special.
“Stephen wants to do it, I want to do it, the studio wants to do it,” said Nevins. He would go on to state that Colbert would be “unfettered,” indicating that he would be free to talk politics, without the limitations he’s subject to on The Late Show.
Nevins pitches the special as an alternative to traditional news coverage of the election. He suggested that the comedian would still be delivering the results state-by-state, but interspersed with the type of material that earned him an army of devoted fans during his work on The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.
Colbert took over the reins of The Late Show in September 2015, but has struggled to compete with Jimmy Fallon and The Tonight Show in terms of ratings. However, between being tapped for a high-profile election special on Showtime, and continued confirmation that Colbert won’t be swapping slots with The Late Late Show host James Corden, it seems that the host still has the backing of CBS.
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