Stephen Colbert is slowly getting back in the media before he takes over CBS’ The Late Show, doing several interviews this week. It’s clear that he is doing his best to put his Colbert Report persona behind him.
Colbert started the new media blitz with a GQ interview, in which he discussed the death of his father and brothers in a tragic plane crash. He also talked about that life-changing experience - which happened when he was only 11 - in an interview with Howard Stern on Tuesday.
“It’s built into me the way marble is built into a statue. It’s kind of, at a certain age, what I was made of,” Colbert told Stern, notes The Washington Post.
Colbert also hopes that he will change the late night landscape and insisted that he doesn’t want to get stuck in petty rivalries with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel.
He also got some advice from David Letterman, but wouldn’t say more about that meeting. He did say it would be “lovely” to have him on the show some day.
While the Colbert in front of the camera might be different from the one seen on the Report, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that he is bringing over Report staffers to CBS. Tom Purcell will continue acting as his executive producer and a writer and Meredith Bennett has been promoted to executive producer. Co-executive producers Emily Lazar and Barry Julien are also sticking around.
Emily Gertler, a Good Morning America veteran, will be senior entertainment producer and Sheryl Zelikson, who worked with Letterman, is staying on as music producer.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert premieres on Sept. 8.
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