We're About to Go Through a Colbert Drought

The transition of Stephen Colbert from truthiness-devoted host of The Colbert Report to David Letterman's successor on The Late Show is a bittersweet one. We'll get Colbert's genuinely great interviewing skills without the constant irony, which will be refreshing and nice. On the other hand, we'll be losing one of the best characters of all time, and a tried and true resource for catharsis and political education. But when exactly will Colbert take over The Late Show ? Turns out it's gonna be a long transition.

The Colbert Report only has about a week of airtime before it's gone for good (:( :( :(), but we've still got far too long before Colbert's debut on The Late Show. His first episode won't air until late summer, according to an "industry insider" who spoke with The LA Times.

Letterman's final episode is set to air on May 20, 2015. After that, though there may be guest hosts similar to what CBS already has lined up for The Late Late Show, time will be required for retooling of sets and other general gearing-up behind the scenes things. We don't have the full details of what Colbert's planning to do between his last episode of Colbert Report Dec. 18 and his first episode of Late Show probably sometime in August, but I'd imagine there's probably a well-earned extended vacation in there as well as some serious planning for world domination.