TV preview: Free to be Stephen Colbert

Stephen Colbert is dead. Long live Stephen Colbert!

The character Stephen Colbert played for nine years and 1,447 episodes on "The Colbert Report" — a right-wing TV pundit his creator described as an "idiot" — is gone. Not dead, but buried by the man who created him.

"I think one of the reasons why I most wanted to drop the character is that I felt I had done everything I could with him or everything I could do with that show," said Colbert, who begins his new lease on late-night life on Tuesday, when he takes over as host of "The Late Late Show."

For many talk-show hosts, the actual talking to guests is the hard part. For Colbert, it's what he's looking forward to the most, without the constraints of his right-wing, political character he left behind at Comedy Central.

"So now I feel actually more freed up," he said. "That was, in some ways, the most energetic, the most exciting part of the show to me. And now I don't have to hold back at all."

And he's discovering that "not having to run everything I say through the character's bible in my head is really lovely" because doing interviews as faux Stephen Colbert left him "exhausted at the end of every interview from having gone through his little maze in my head before I could say anything, and trying to do it fast enough that the audience couldn't tell I was doing it. … Now I can just talk."

In 1993, David Letterman was inundated with questions about how he would translate his comedy to an audience watching an hour earlier as he transitioned from NBC's "Late Night" to CBS' "Late Show." Today, Colbert is inundated with questions about how his comedy will change now that he's not playing a character anymore.

The answer is: not much. And he's somewhat amused by all the questions.

"It feels a little bit like therapy," Colbert said. "'Who is the real Stephen Colbert? Why did you wear a mask? What were you running from? Let it out. It's a late night comedy show. Cry.'

"You know, I don't think anybody would have watched that old show if they didn't know who I was because that guy was a tool, and we did our best from the very beginning to peek around the mask."

And faux Stephen Colbert wasn't far off from real Stephen Colbert.

"Not to get too erudite right now, but Oscar Wilde said something along the lines of, 'Do you want to see somebody's real face? Give them a mask,' " Colbert said. "I was able to piggyback on that character and be extremely intimate with the audience because I had the excuse that I didn't mean it. But I'm here to tell you — I meant a lot of it. I even agreed with my character sometimes."

Although he has some advice for anyone who thinks that faux Stephen Colbert was real.

"Well, I hope they are seeking professional help," he said.

To hear Colbert tell it, he's been given "free rein" by his new bosses.

"CBS has asked nothing of me other than I fill an hour every night Monday through Friday," he said. "They haven't asked me to change or do anything. They like the show I used to do, and they said, 'Would you mind adding another 120 hours a year?' Honest to God.

"They are, like, 'We like what you did. We know you don't want to do the character anymore, but please add to what you used to do.' "

CBS Entertainment president Nina Tassler has a simple mandate for Colbert: "Be good."

"Launching a new [10:30 p.m. MDT] show at CBS is a once-in-a-generation moment," she said. "And we definitely think Stephen is a once-in-a-generation talent."

"I've only known Stephen for a short time, but one thing I can tell you, he is definitely a creative force."

Colbert, however, says he's not trying to reinvent the late-night talk-show genre.

"The format hasn't changed," he said. "There are certain things that happen perforce. There are six commercial breaks. There are seven acts. I love the grind of a daily show. I love a live audience. I like meeting the guests, and I like telling jokes. But that's it.

"My entire staff came over from the old show. So you will recognize our sense of humor."

Colbert and his team have moved into Letterman's old digs at the Ed Sullivan Theater on Broadway in Manhattan. The theater/studio has been gutted and redesigned — in no small part because advances in technology since Letterman moved in 22 years ago have made bulky equipment unnecessary. It's been restored to more closely resemble its 1927 origins.

Colbert did say to expect one change, suggested by his "Late Show" predecessor when the two met a few months ago.

"I said, 'Now that we're changing the theater after 22 years in there, anything you would have changed?'" Colbert said. "He goes, 'Uh, I would have liked to have tried the desk on the other side.'

"So I went to work the next day, and I called my designer. I said, 'I have terrible news. We're going to reverse the set,' because I want to try that, too."

But if you want to know exactly what "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" is going to look like, you're going to have to wait until Tuesday to find out.

"It's hard to know what you are going to do until you do it. I've done 1,500 of these show before but never an hour long, and I'll have to feel that as we go," Colbert said. "I have my own hopes for the kind of show that I want to do, but I won't know until I'm on my wave. All I can feel right now is the swell behind me, and I'm paddling as fast as I can."

spierce@sltrib.com

Twitter: @ScottDPierce

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On TV

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" premieres Tuesday at 10:35 p.m. on CBS/Ch. 2.

First guests

Nearly nine months after exiting Comedy Central, Stephen Colbert returns Tuesday as host of CBS' "The Late Show."

Here is his first week's guest list:

Tuesday • George Clooney and Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush.

Wednesday • Scarlett Johansson and SpaceX and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk, with Kendrick Lamar performing and being interviewed.

Thursday • Vice President Joe Biden and Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, with musical guest Toby Keith.

Friday • Amy Schumer and author Stephen King, with Troubled Waters performing and being interviewed.

— The Associated Press