I know this has been mused on for years, but I am surprised it is happening.
I have mixed reactions: I think he will be great on The Late Show, but I am going to be sat to see the Colbert Report go.
I am curious to see how The Late Show will adjust and change. Colbert has a biting wit and satirical side in his character, and if The Late Show continues to just be a collection of celebs peddling their movies/albums and the crappy Top 10 list, I think it will be a waste of Colbert’s talents.
It will be a tough balance; The Late Show has a pre-existing audience that may not map well to the kind of comedy he already brings in-character.
I have to say, I worry that this will end in a pretty blah The Late Show and people harking on memories of the Colbert Report.
I wonder what Conan thinks of all this. 
Letterman was the first national show to feature Bill Hicks (& Incidentally, the Black Crowes, but that’s beside the point). Back in the day, it had much more comedy bite than it’s given credit for. Letterman has said that he always regretted censoring Hicks on his last appearance. So I wonder if there are moves afoot to make the show edgier, and recapture the spirit of the show from its earlier days?
(Back to the aside, on You Tube, check out The Crowes cover of Grand Funk Central’s/Traffic’s Feelin’ Alright, live on Letterman, it’s brilliant)
This is kind of along the lines of if Bono dropped the character of Bono and Paul Hewson decided to be himself in public. Stephen Colbert (coal-bare) is a creation of Stephen Colbert (col-bert). I know that the former is brilliant independently but the layer of the character gives him more freedom to do outlandish crap as it is part of the character and therefore doesn’t really end up at his personal doorstep. You could argue that Bill O’Reilly is pulling a similar shtick but he is claiming these are his real views so he doesn’t have the same degree of wiggle room. I will be very disappointed if this means the death of the Colbert that we know and love but it might be an opportunity for the man himself to come out with some intelligent comedy that has nothing to do with his character, which could be interesting. I think there is a possibility that the man himself is a bit tired of playing the character all the time and possibly would like to work on other angles.
