Stephen Colbert's ending show will certainly be one for the ages, and the Comedy Central star has just announced he'll be playing his "Stephen Colbert" character for a bit over a month, not long after it was publicly announced that Colbert would be taking Letterman's place in the long-running "Late Show."
Perhaps the most widely recognized figure in Comedy Central, the conservative Stephen Colbert character has entertained American audiences for nine years now. However, it is time to step down, and Colbert's ending show will not only see him leaving the cable network that first saw him bloom: the conservative spoof of him will also have to go, now.
As reported by the Los Angeles Times, the funny man with a gift for political humor will be stepping down come December, and the Colbert ending show will be aired on December 18, after over nine years of "The Colbert Report" and a few more playing the same character in "The Daily Show," where conservative "Stephen Colbert" first made his appearance as a correspondent for the show.
Colbert's ending show, and above all the death of "Stephen Colbert" marks the end of an era, and a big question mark over how will Colbert present himself once he takes over David Letterman's old job. As audiences know his comedy mostly from the Bill O'Reilly-like character, it's still a complete mystery what will be his new style in "The Late Show."
To appease fans of the show and character, Colbert's date announcement came as he was promoting his book, "America Again: Re-becoming the Greatness We Never Weren't," a political satire released back in 2012. Earlier this year, its audiobook won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Album.
Fans of the show and character already knew that Colbert's ending show was nearby, but the blow's still hard to cushion, particularly talking about a show with such a long-standing fan base.
Colbert's new venture was first announced back in the spring, only a few days after Letterman announced his retirement for an undisclosed month in 2015, E! reported at the time. Only a few days after the official announcement, Colbert appeared on "The Late Show" to talk about his upcoming hosting gig on the "Ed Sullivan Theater" in New York.
The two famous hosts went on to quip at each other, like Letterman saying he was glad they hadn't hired "a boob like me" and Colbert responding that he wasn't any better, just another kind of "boob" - he even went so far as to say: "Every boob is like a snowflake, Dave. We're all unique in our own way."
At the eve of Colbert's ending show, it seems like the perfect time to remember all about the career of his long-standing character.
Colbert modeled his persona after figures such as Bill O'Reilly from Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor," a man who he affectionately calls "Papa Bear" while constantly mocking him in a sort of ongoing war. In 2007, Colbert appeared on "The O'Reilly Factor" and O'Reilly on "The Colbert Report."
The character of "Stephen Colbert" is going on 20 years now, as he made his first appearance in 1997, when he joined the second season of "The Daily Show," even before Jon Stewart had come into the show. As the show progressed, his character grew to become more and more popular, until he finally got his own show, "The Colbert Report," in 2005.
Only a year after "The Colbert Report" was first released, the funny guy was invited to one of the greatest comedy gigs in the United States: the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. In the event, he was standing only a few feet away from then-President George W. Bush, whom he was nonetheless sure to bash from the point of view of his "Stephen Colbert" character.
After the event, Colbert became an Internet sensation, starting his years of growing popularity.
Colbert was the first "Daily Show" alumnus to get his own talk show: earlier this year, English correspondent John Oliver also got his own talk show, HBO's "Last Week Tonight," filled with the political humor audiences have come to expect from those that saw their characters being born on "The Daily Show."
Saying farewell to the "Stephen Colbert" character won't be easy, but surely great things are coming after Colbert's ending show.
