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Published Tuesday, October 18, 2005 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

THE COLBERT REPORT DEBUT: Early returns are mostly favorable on the debut last night of the latest, greatest Comedy Central attempt at a Daily Show follow-up, The Colbert Report. The premiere was absurd. But they were going for absurd, so they hit that. The first guest, an inspired choice in Stone Phillips, mostly because having him side-by-side with Colbert let the audience see exactly who Colbert has been mocking all these years. Hint: Not Bill O'Reilly. At any rate. Not sure how the show plans to keep up this pace, since they had a head-start for their debut. More interesting to see: How long Comedy Central waits before pulling it for the next 11:30 p.m. attempt. Can anyone name the last three shows to inhabit the time slot? Anyone. I'll even spot you one: Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn. As Wonkette wrote: "The Colbert Report tests the boundaries of just how long one can stand arch irony. Or maybe I mean satire and "arch" is just what Stephen Colbert's eyebrow does the entire show."