l****z
发帖数: 29846 | 1 NEW YORK — Fifteen months ago John Oliver, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart
were all massive stars on Comedy Central.Now Oliver is at HBO, Colbert is on
the way to CBS and Stewart is preparing to sign off from “The Daily Show.”
What the heck happened?
It would seem that Comedy Central let talent slip through its fingers,
although the channel may have had few options to stop them from leaving.
Now Comedy Central finds itself in rebuilding mode, having just launched a
new talk show, Larry Wilmore’s “The Nightly Show,” in Colbert’s former 9
:30 p.m. time slot.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Wilmore “has held less of Stewart’s
audience than Colbert did,” though he’s just getting started.
Speculation has already started about who might succeed Stewart on the 9 p.m
. “Daily Show.”
Perhaps it could have been Oliver.
When Stewart took a leave of absence in summer 2013 to direct his first
feature film, “Rosewater,” Oliver filled in. His performance was nearly
universally praised. Some people even said they preferred John over Jon.
There was an expectation that Oliver was first in line should Stewart step
down. But then Oliver signed a deal with HBO for the weekly series that’s
now known as “Last Week Tonight.”
At the time, ScreenRant wrote that the departure “could be perceived as
leaving ‘The Daily Show’ vulnerable, in that there is now no line of
succession.”
“They should have tried to keep him,” The Wrap editor in chief Sharon
Waxman said Wednesday night. Oliver “really would have been, I think, the
best heir apparent.”
Perhaps Oliver didn’t want to wait for Stewart to sign off. Or perhaps a
once-a-week commitment was more appealing than a four-days-a-week one.
Six months after Oliver departed for HBO, Colbert won one of the hottest
jobs in all of television — “The Late Show,” succeeding David Letterman.
CBS, the home of “The Late Show,” and Viacom’s Comedy Central, the home
of “The Colbert Report,” are sort of siblings, since Sumner Redstone
controls the holding company of both CBS and Viacom.
“There is no way they were going to keep Stephen Colbert,” Waxman said. “
When a television network backs up the truck and dumps a whole lot of money
at your door, it’s really very hard to say no.”
Letterman will sign off in May, and Colbert will start in September.
To some, the Comedy Central situation is reminiscent of “Saturday Night
Live,” which has for decades launched the careers of comedians who move on
to (sometimes) greater opportunities. (Other times, those comics regret
leaving “SNL.”)
Other “The Daily Show” alums include Wilmore, Steve Carell, Ed Helms,
Olivia Munn, Rob Riggle and Mo Rocca.
With Wilmore, Comedy Central chose to promote from within.
David Folkenflik, media correspondent for NPR, pointed out on CNN that
Stewart and Colbert “were not who we think of now when they started each of
their franchises.”
“They really evolved into it,” he said. “They showed a spark, and Comedy
Central deserves commendation for nurturing them along.”
The channel, he added, “rode this out for a very long time” — 16 years in
the case of Stewart. |
|
