People were wondering who would replace David Letterman after he announced his retirement on The Late Night Show on April 3, 2014; a question which was answered when CBS announced that Stephen Colbert would be the one to replace Letterman. However, since Colbert has eight months left on his contract with Comedy Central, he will start hosting The Late Night Show sometime next year. Letterman will stay on as host until the end of 2014.

Stephen Colbert became popular through his The Colbert Report, a phony news program where he mimics an ignorant right-wing spinster. Colbert expressed his deep appreciation for being chosen by CBS to replace Letterman and considers this to be the high point of his career.

On the other hand, Comedy Central also shared their appreciation for having had a talent like Colbert for almost 20 years. They are happy for this turn of events in Colbert's career and look forward to the last eight months with him.

Colbert's writing staff will stay with him when he leaves Comedy Central. The Hollywood Reporter received reports that Comedy Central is considering several alternatives for the 11:30 p.m. slot, 30 minutes after The Daily Show. The network has not indicated whether it will replace it with a talk show.

This is the second time that Comedy Central lost a talent. The first was John Oliver, who left The Daily Show in favor of a deal with HBO last autumn (Oliver pitched in last summer for Jon Stewart). The network would have wanted to keep Oliver but was not able to give him a show suited to his talent. If Colbert or Stewart had left the network earlier, Oliver would definitely have taken their place.

With Colbert leaving Comedy Central, the network can vouch for Chris Hardwick, who was successful with @Midnight. The series was renewed for another 40 weeks after a short test broadcast.