The first episode of Stephen Colbert's Late Show was a success for CBS, but as the host explained on Wednesday night's show, it was very nearly a complete disaster.
In his opening Late Show monologue last night, Colbert told a true story about a technical glitch that very nearly prevented the debut episode from airing, and he seemed visibly stressed out reliving it. Colbert explained that the show was a little long and they were delayed editing it, and when they tried to send it to CBS, their computers kept crashing.
"At 11:20 -- and again this actually happened -- no one in the building could give me a guarantee for certain that the show was going to go on the air last night," he said. "So you can imagine how exciting that was for us!"
He went on to joke about how screwed he would have been if his premiere episode, which CBS had been hyping for months, didn't air at all, joking that he'd be running a theater camp in Idaho.
Luckily, Colbert's Late Show did broadcast, as the problem was evidently fixed at the last minute. Fans have been enjoying the new show and ratings have been solid, bringing in 6.6 million viewers but falling short of The Tonight Show's pilot episode last year, as we previously reported.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, assuming there are no further technical glitches, airs weeknights at 11:35 on CBS.