On July 1, 2015, shortly before taking over "The Late Show" on CBS, Stephen Colbert unexpectedly spent an hour at midnight guest-hosting a public access television show in Monroe, Michigan, "Only in Monroe."
Matt Solomon, at LateNighter, explains:
"There's all this pressure on a first show," Colbert recalled during a 2024 Late Show audience Q&A. His then-head writer Opus Moreschi suggested a way to relieve some of that pressure: "Let's do a first show someplace else, like at a local cable access studio somewhere out in America."
Somewhere out in America turned out to be Monroe, population roughly 20,000.
His musical guest for that midnight, unannounced public access TV show was Eminem.
So, Friday night at 1:35pm, 24 hours after signing off of his 11-year hugely successful CBS run, vengefully cut short by Trump and his allies, Colbert again substitute hosted on "Only in Monroe."
This time, he was joined by musical director Jack White and guest Jeff Daniels, "commercial" for local pizzeria Buschemi's delivered by Steve Buscemi, and a cameo from Eminem. Colbert even cold-call Face-times Byron Allen, to pitch "Only in Monroe's" hosts for possible guest hosting on Allen's "Comics Unleashed," which replaced "The Late Show" on CBS.
This is a delightful and hilarious hour of television comedy, and only goes to prove that Colbert will be entertaining in whatever he chooses to do next.
