Cyber Week Sale:

Save 50% on a 3-month Digiday+ membership. Ends Dec 5.

SUBSCRIBE

Twitter reacts to Stephen Colbert replacing David Letterman

Things move fast in the land of late night television. Just a week after Late Show host David Letterman announced he was leaving the program, CBS officially named comedian Stephen Colbert as his successor.

The five-year deal, which was initially reported by Mashable on Saturday, marks a big change for Colbert, who will  drop his ironic conservative talk show host shtick in favor of something more palatable to mass audiences. And while no one knows  yet how or whether he’ll pull it off, that hasn’t stopped the outpouring of opinions on Twitter. Here are a few of note.

Slate starts the conversation with a bit of trolling. 

colbert5

Long live internet activism!

colbert2

Colbert’s enemies chime in. 

colbert8

How Colbert is a little bit hip hop.

colbert4

An existentialist take.

colbert3

Backlash to the backlash.

colbert6

A history lesson for the millennials.

colbert7

Understandably, the Internet has made some people paranoid.

colbert10

No, Grumpy Cat is not impressed.

colbert11

More in Media

Digiday+ Research Subscription Index 2025: Subscription strategies from Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others

Digiday’s third annual Subscription Index examines and measures publishers’ subscription strategies to identify common approaches and key tactics among Bloomberg, The New York Times, Vox and others.

From lawsuits to lobbying: How publishers are fighting AI

We may be closing out 2025, but publishers aren’t retreating from the battle of AI search — some are escalating it, and they expect the fight to stretch deep into 2026. 

Media Briefing: Publishers turn to vertical video to compete with creators and grow ad revenue in 2026

Publishers add vertical video feeds to their sites to boost engagement, attract video ad spend and compete with news creators.