What Will Colbert Do With His Extra Premiere Time?

It's hard to believe it's less than a week until The Late Show with Stephen Colbert premieres on CBS, and I, for one, am excited — especially after reading the first two weeks' worth of guests. It's going to be great, and I can't wait to see Colbert as himself, as well, not because I didn't love his conservative Colbert Report characterization of himself, but because the real person behind the persona has a lot to offer late night. That's why it was great to hear that Colbert's Late Show premiere will get an extra nine minutes of broadcast time, because that's just more time for us to get used to him in his new role, and vice versa. And while nine minutes might not seem like much, there's plenty that can be crammed into that amount of time, so I'll take it.

The premiere will begin at 11:35 p.m. as normal, but will run until 12:44 pm, pushing James Corden's Late Late Show's ending time to 1:44 a.m. All in all, it's not too much of a schedule disruption, but there must be a reason for the extra time. The episode is likely to be jam packed, so we'll need all the time we can get. Here are some ideas for how Colbert could fill those extra nine minutes.

An Extra Musical Number With Added Colbert Vocals

The premiere episode's musical guests are Jon Baptiste and Stay Human, and while they'll perform before the end of the broadcast, why not throw in another performance with Colbert himself joining in? He's been known to do so once or twice in the past, so there is precedent...

A Secret Special Guest Appearance

Sure, we know who the main guests on the show will be (Jeb Bush and George Clooney — what a combo!), but what if someone really awesome and currently unknown pops out during the extra broadcast time? That'd be pretty awesome

A Bit Of Improv

It's unlikely that we'll get Colbert doing any stand-up or improv proper, and if we did it would be at the beginning of the show, but a girl can dream, can't she? In a perfect world, there'd be a Strangers With Candy reunion and Colbert would go all Chuck Noblet on us, but I know it's not going to happen.

Nothing Out Of The Ordinary

Given that it's literally only nine extra minutes, it's more than likely that nothing out of the ordinary will be happening during the premiere and they just needed a little extra time to make sure to fit all the guests in. I know, it's a bit of a downer.

Whatever happens during the Late Show with Stephen Colbert premiere, one thing's for sure: it'll be good to have him back on our screens again. It's been far too long.

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