On April 10, 2014, CBS announced in a press release that Colbert “will succeed David Letterman as the host of The Late Show, effective when Mr. Letterman retires from the broadcast.” On January 12, 2015, CBS announced that Colbert would premiere as the Late Show host on Tuesday, September 8, 2015.
Comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert has a long-established reputation for taking the road less traveled. Fans tuning in to watch him in David Letterman’s old spot on CBS are discovering that he intends to keep the tradition going.
If the lineup for the first week of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” is any indicator, the host plans to deliver an eclectic array of guests, rather than simply trot out the kitschy sketches and Top 10 lists favored by other late-night presenters.
Two corporate leaders were among the first visitors to Colbert’s set in the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway. Elon Musk, chief executive of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, and Uber Technologies’ CEO Travis Kalanick were scheduled to appear alongside luminaries from the worlds of entertainment and politics as “The Late Show” debuted Sept. 8.
Of course, Musk and Kalanick can hardly be considered unknowns, even outside the business world. If Colbert’s first-night guest George Clooney is a Hollywood megastar, then Kalanick and Musk are titans of industry.
A Billion-Dollar Guest List
Musk’s record of innovation has seen him compared to legendary inventor Thomas Edison. Consumer Reports recently announced that the Tesla Model S sedan, an electric vehicle built by Musk’s company, had “performed better in our tests than any other car ever has, breaking the Consumer Reports Rating system.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s SpaceX has a contract with NASA to launch resupply missions to the International Space Station using the company’s spacecraft.
Talk about star power – Musk has 2.58 million Twitter followers.
Kalanick’s Twitter page describes him as a “serial entrepreneur.” Before co-founding the ridesharing company Uber in 2009, he co-founded the content-delivery company Red Swoosh.
Red Swoosh was eventually sold for a reported $18.7 million. Uber Technologies has been valued at more than $50 billion and generated more than $400 million in revenue in 2014, according to a July article in The Wall Street Journal.
That track record helped land Kalanick on the 2015 Forbes Billionaires List, with a reported net worth of $5.3 billion. Musk also earned a spot on the money list, with a net worth reported at $12 billion.
More CEOs Heading to Broadway
Musk and Kalanick won’t be the last corporate celebs to sit on the other side of Colbert’s desk, according to the talk show’s talent booker.
“I’m not interested in a conventional CEO,” Emily Lazar told BloombergBusiness in August. “I’m interested in people who are innovators, not time servers.”
