NEW YORK: A new era in American talk show comedy begins Tuesday when Stephen Colbert officially steps into the shoes of television legend David Letterman at the helm of “The Late Show.”
The man who shot to prominence on Comedy Central with an ultra-conservative alter-ego on “The Colbert Report” moves to CBS and a world of late night vastly different from the golden years of Letterman.
US networks face increasing competition, audience figures are down, young people watch less and less television and the success of Colbert’s rival hosts at NBC and ABC has been fueled by clever video clips that go viral on the Internet.
The genre is “not as central as it used to be,” explains Deborah Jaramillo, assistant professor of film and television at Boston University.
“The audience is much more fragmented” and young viewers watch shows on actual television sets less and less, she said.
When Letterman’s rival Jay Leno stepped down at “The Tonight Show” on NBC last year, the channel — an engine of late-night talk show evolution — chose “Saturday Night Live” alum Jimmy Fallon to succeed him.
Young, debonair and with social media savvy, he has excelled at bringing along young viewers with him. Before that, Jimmy Kimmel was shaking up things up at ABC since 2003 as host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!“
“Kimmel became successful in part because what he did was easily translatable to YouTube,” said Dominic Caristi, professor in the telecommunications department at Ball State University in Indiana.
Colbert will be expected to hold his own against the Jimmys, who excel in putting together skits with Hollywood stars or musical sequences with singers. Over the summer, he dripped out a series of short comic “Late Show” videos online prefacing his takeover.
One way in which he may carve out a niche would be to dabble in more social commentary than Fallon and Kimmel, Caristi suggests.
One early sign of that could be the inclusion of Jeb Bush, the Republican candidate for the White House whose poll numbers have tanked under the juggernaut that is Donald Trump, alongside Hollywood A-lister George Clooney as guests on the first show.
Vice President Joe Biden is booked for Thursday, and in the second week Colbert will host UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer among his guests.
Comic Colbert steps into TV legend Letterman’s shoes
Comic Colbert steps into TV legend Letterman’s shoes
Cambodia takes back looted historic artifacts handled by British art dealer
- The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia: Cambodian officials on Friday received more than six dozen historic artifacts described as part of the country’s cultural heritage that had been looted during decades of war and instability.
At a ceremony attended by Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many, the 74 items were unveiled at the National Museum in Phnom Penh after their repatriation from the United Kingdom.
The objects were returned under a 2020 agreement between the Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts and the family of the late Douglas Latchford, a British art collector and dealer who allegedly had the items smuggled out of Cambodia.
“This substantial restitution represents one of the most important returns of Khmer cultural heritage in recent years, following major repatriations in 2021 and 2023 from the same collection,” the Culture Ministry said in a statement. “It marks a significant step forward in Cambodia’s continued efforts to recover, preserve, and restore its ancestral legacy for future generations.”
The artifacts were described as dating from the pre-Angkorian period through the height of the Angkor Empire, including “monumental sandstone sculptures, refined bronze works, and significant ritual objects.” The Angkor Empire, which extended from the ninth to the 15th century, is best known for the Angkor Wat archaeological site, the nation’s biggest tourist attraction.
Latchford was a prominent antiquities dealer who allegedly orchestrated an operation to sell looted Cambodian sculptures on the international market.
From 1970 to the 1980s, during Cambodia’s civil wars and the communist Khmer Rouge ‘s brutal reign, organized looting networks sent artifacts to Latchford, who then sold them to Western collectors, dealers, and institutions. These pieces were often physically damaged, having been pried off temple walls or other structures by the looters.
Latchford was indicted in a New York federal court in 2019 on charges including wire fraud and conspiracy. He died in 2020, aged 88, before he could be extradited to face charges.
Cambodia, like neighboring Thailand, has benefited from a trend in recent decades involving the repatriation of art and archaeological treasures. These include ancient Asian artworks as well as pieces lost or stolen during turmoil in places such as Syria, Iraq and Nazi-occupied Europe. New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the prominent institutions that has been returning illegally smuggled art, including to Cambodia.
“The ancient artifacts created and preserved by our ancestors are now being returned to Cambodia, bringing warmth and joy, following the country’s return to peace,” said Hun Many, who is the younger brother of Prime Minister Hun Manet.
