Age of the Geek

     Can I be selfish and say I wish the greatest thing to happen to Stephen Colbert's career didn't happen?

     When David Letterman announced his retirement, I had a feeling that Colbert would be on the shortlist to take Dave's spot. I never thought he'd take it though.

     After all, Colbert is the king of his kingdom. He's been knighted. He's had his head shaved by order of the President. He's won Grammys and Emmys. He coined Merriam-Webster's 2006 "Word of the Year." There's a treadmill in space named after him and he has his own flavor of Ben and Jerry's.

     What more could he possibly want out of life?

     Apparently, he wanted “The Late Show.”

     I've read that Colbert has had his eyes on Dave's desk for some time now, even scheduling his own contract renewals to coincide with Letterman's in anticipation of this exact scenario.

     But while this may be Colbert's dream job, I'm going to take a page out of his character's book and ask, "How does this affect me?"

     Sadly, Colbert has said that his pundit character won't be making the move from "The Colbert Report" to "The Late Show." CBS will do what congressional hearings could not. Make Stephen Colbert break character.

     It will be difficult to divorce the man from the persona he's crafted over the last decade. I'll miss the infinitely egotistical and illogical character he played, but it will be interesting to see how much of his persona was an act.

     What's more interesting will be seeing if, or how much, CBS will restrain Colbert's political leanings. It's hard to believe that somebody would hire the nation's most successful political satirist and not let him do what he does best. On the other hand, it's also hard to believe that the move from cable to network won't force a more watered down program for the broader audience.

     Sure, Letterman had no problem mining politics for jokes, most of what I knew about the Clinton administration came from watching "The Late Show" as a kid, but he's never carried the same kind of political weight or tackled political issues as strongly.

     And what about the guests?

     No offense to Letterman, but his average line-up of guests are generally less cerebral than Colbert is used to. While Letterman interviewed Tom Selleck and Lindsay Lohan last week, Colbert was talking to a mathematician and getting romantically rejected by Jane Goodall.

     Colbert has been a regular outlet for scientists and government figures more interested in educating the public than self-promotion. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is "The Colbert Report's" most frequent guest and he's not the only physicist to appear on the show.

     It'd be nice if Colbert kept the same pedigree of guests, but I'm not holding my breath.

     As great as his new show will probably be, "The Colbert Report" is a show that won't be easily replaced.

     Which brings us to another question. Who is going to take Colbert's timeslot following "The Daily Show?"

     Assuming Jon Stewart will take this opportunity to produce a new spin-off show, who among his staff could host it?

     The obvious choice would be John Oliver, but he just recently got his own show on HBO. Aasif Mandvi could probably carry his own show, but he seems to have his eye on Hollywood instead. Perhaps Jason Jones and Samantha Bee, married couple and the two longest serving correspondents, could go out on their own.

     I suppose Comedy Central could just come up with a different show all together, but I probably wouldn't watch that.

     Which works out, I suppose, since I'll need to open up room in my schedule for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

     Travis Fischer is a news writer for Mid-America Publishing and hopes Colbert keeps the "Top Ten" list.