The 11:30 Curse

Let's all get together and wish Stephen Colbert luck. Tonight his spinoff from The Daily Show, cleverly called The Colbert Report (pronounced col-BEAR re-POR, the French way), debuts on Comedy Central. In it, Colbert expands his know-it-all reporter persona from TDS and makes him into a blustery Bill O'Reilley-style interview show host. Colbert has said in the wide-spread published reports on the show that he fashioned his "Stephen Colbert" character after O'Reilly, Joe Scarborough and probably a little piece of every TV and radio pundit from Sean Hannity to Nancy Grace. Oh, and unlike his role models, he'll be funny on purpose.

The post-Jon Stewart timeslot has not been kind to Comedy Central. Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn seemed to be the best counterpart to TDS, giving the "regular guy's" take on the issues, where lumpy, centrist-to-right-leaning comedians like Patrice O'Neal, Jim Norton, and Nick DiPaolo would unflinchingly give their less-than-PC opinions on everything from race to pop culture. In comparison to the increasingly liberal agenda Stewart was advancing (not that there's anything wrong with that... it's made for wickedly funny TV for the last five years), it gave a complete picture of the world's silliness.

Since Tough Crowd got dropped, CC has tried to fashion another companion show. An entertainment-show satire staring Greg Giraldo was developed and dropped in favor of a once-a-week show with David Spade. A talk show was given to Adam Carolla and quickly shifted to midnight after Adam failed to generate ratings or laughs. Now Colbert is getting eight weeks to get a toehold on the 11:30 timeslot, directly up against Letterman, Leno, and what's left of Nightline.

Like I said, I wish Colbert luck. I can't say I'm sure his reporter character will translate to a full half-hour show, but I'll reserve judgement until I see a few episodes. Since he has TDS' crack writing staff and Stewart behind him, Colbert has at least a fighting chance.