For 20 years, Stephen Colbert distinguished truth from truthiness

Stephen Colbert during a taping of Comedy Central's The Colbert Report in December 2014. Andrew Harrer/Pool/Getty Images hide caption

After more than 3,000 episodes of television stretched over 20 years and two TV networks, this critic believes Stephen Colbert's greatest legacy as a host and performer comes down to a single word.

Colbert highlighted it on the very first episode of his Colbert Report, a spinoff of The Daily Show which featured him as a blown-up parody of TV pundits like original Fox News Channel star Bill O'Reilly — championing the idea of believing something because it feels true, regardless of the facts. "I don't trust books," he says in a segment from that first show. "They're all facts and no heart."

And now, as his Late Show ends an 11-year run Thursday — canceled by CBS despite top ratings in a move some suspect was rooted in silencing a high-profile critic of President Trump — it seems Colbert may have been felled by his stance against such thinking.

"Stephen Colbert has shown, more so than anyone else of this modern era of late night, the power of sticking to the truth," says Roy Wood Jr., a former correspondent on The Daily Show and host of CNN's satire program, Have I Got News for You .

"It's pretty dope that he didn't blink," Wood adds. "In fact, he went harder. This is by far the most sensitive administration we've ever had to deal with as comedians. … He didn't bat an eye."

Hasan Minhaj, another Daily Show alum who hosted his own topical program for Netflix called Patriot Act , says Colbert showed how satirists could evolve while developing a relationship with their audience over decades — going from a top Daily Show correspondent to playing a character on the Colbert Report to revealing more of himself as host of the Late Show .

"What Stephen did, is he was constantly meeting the moment," Minhaj adds. "When you're hosting a nightly program, every day is a new moment. … I think Stephen will be known as one of the most brilliant minds to meet the moment in every way he possibly could."

A sketch comic destined for more

Raised in South Carolina, Colbert learned the early basics of sketch comedy and satire at Second City in Chicago, serving as understudy for a guy named Steve Carell, who eventually joined him in the pair's first real break, serving as writers and performers for Saturday Night Live alum Dana Carvey's self-titled sketch comedy show in 1996.

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But it wasn't until he landed with Carrell on The Daily Show a few years later that Colbert developed the persona he would later call a "high status idiot," who poked at the absurdity of cable news pundits — especially on the emerging, conservative-oriented Fox News Channel — by simply amplifying their behavior.

Minhaj says Colbert's work as a Daily Show correspondent was so successful, later contributors passed around an email from him outlining how to do the program's "field pieces" filmed outside the building.

"It really was almost like basketball fundamentals, but for performing political satire," he adds. "He is fully committed and in character the whole way through. … Stephen Colbert's field pieces became the cornerstone and benchmark for what a great correspondent performance is."

Working with longtime host Jon Stewart, who took over the Daily Show in 1999, Colbert, Carrell and the show's other correspondents honed a focus on news-driven satire and politics which spread across television, influencing a generation of programs and performers.

And the satire only expanded when he and Stewart spun off Colbert's character in a program airing after the Daily Show in 2005, called The Colbert Report — creating a figure so indelible, he testified in character before a Congressional subcommittee hearing on the issue of farm workers and immigration and roasted then-President George W. Bush during an iconic appearance at the White House Correspondents Dinner.

Comedian Stephen Colbert testifies during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill in September 2010. Alex Wong/Getty Images hide caption

Former House Republican leader Tom DeLay even seemed to think Colbert was a real pundit, using footage from one of his interviews in a mass email to supporters.

"I always thought his maximum impact came in [ The Colbert Report ]," says Bill Carter, who covered TV for decades at The New York Times, creating books and a CNN docuseries on late night television. "That's when he was an entire original, like no one has ever seen, doing a character for nine years … He had to tell his guests, 'You know, I'm going to be a jerk.'… It was really a change in the form."

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Carter wrote in an essay for CNN that Colbert's character was a "vain, narcissistic conservative true believer who was frequently given to spouting far-fringe ideas that politicians on the right might have been thinking in their gut, but were not willing, until Donald Trump, to speak out loud."

Besides testing the limits of satire, it was also a change which mirrored the times, as cable news pundits rose in prominence and power – especially on Fox News. "I think at the end of the day, he's always been trying to hold a mirror up to the country," Wood says. "Especially, you know, it started with Republicans."

Colbert comes to Network TV

David Letterman originally created CBS' The Late Show back in 1993, after he was passed over for the job of succeeding Johnny Carson as host of NBC's powerhouse Tonight Show . When Letterman retired from network television in 2015, Colbert was tapped as a successor, facing a serious challenge.

Stephen Colbert poses during the 65th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards in September 2013 in Los Angeles. Jason Merritt/Getty Images hide caption

"One of [Colbert's] lasting impacts, was his ability to be an absolute brilliant master of both satire and sincerity," Minhaj says.

But being himself on camera didn't come immediately to Colbert, who admitted recently to the New York Times that he initially avoided being overtly topical, newsy or political in The Late Show 's early days.

By the time I visited his program at the end of 2016, it had been energized by live shows during the Republican and Democratic conventions and the hiring of Chris Licht — who would go on to an ill-fated tenure as president of CNN — to handle non-comedy production decisions as showrunner.

"He didn't have time to find his voice before I got here," Licht told me back then. "[Colbert] really was running the show and every element of it."

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Colbert's turn toward revealing more of himself personally on the show mirrored a turn in media generally toward voices which seem more authentic, especially on podcasts and cable TV. Beyond his criticism of Trump and MAGA Republicans, Colbert showed his love for his longtime wife, Evie McGee Colbert, his passion for The Lord of the Rings and his strong connection to Catholicism on The Late Show .

And while some critics have theorized that part of the slide in ratings among network TV late night shows might be attributed to the hosts' increasingly intense political stands, Carter disagrees. He says modern media consumers often operate in an information silo where online algorithms push content at them, which reinforces what they already believe – making it tough for anyone to craft comedy which speaks across a wide swath of consumers.

Unlike late night legend Johnny Carson, Carter says this era's late night hosts have a hard time appealing to an audience across political lines. "Everybody has to take a point of view," he says. "You're forced into it. You're asked to stand up and say something now. I think, clearly, the events of the world demand that."

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Wood agreed, noting that the best satire pokes at those in power in a way that speaks to the concerns of average viewers. "It's an unspoken pledge that you take as a performer to honor the truth of what's out there," he adds.

"People who believe these late night show are anti-Trump have not stopped to ask themselves, 'Is this administration completely perfect?'" Wood says. "Should we not point out its imperfections? If pointing out its imperfections makes you run for the hills and change the channel, so be it. It doesn't change what's happening on the ground."

Colbert's next act

As Colbert's final Late Show episode approaches, the question arises of what he might do next. Already he has announced a project close to his heart — writing a new Lord of the Rings movie with his son — while insisting he doesn't yet have the mental energy to seriously consider what his next chapter might be.

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But Minhaj and Carter both have the same suggestion for his next project: A one-man show on Broadway, perhaps featuring the return of his old Colbert Report character.

"I'm talking this kind of Billy Crystal meets Steve Martin meets Martin Short meets John Leguizamo personal storytelling," Minhaj adds. "Song, dance, he can do it all … improvise, do comedy and be deep and sincere. He's an electric live-wire act."

While cancellation of The Late Show — and CBS' decision to lease the time period to mogul Byron Allen for his often not-topical program Comics Unleashed — may look like the beginning of the end for late night television, Carter expects Colbert's departure to boost others, particularly Jimmy Kimmel's show.

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"I wouldn't be surprised if 30% to half of [Colbert's] viewers go over to Kimmel," says Carter, who has noticed Kimmel gets an uptick in viewers whenever he has a new episode while Colbert is in reruns. (This week, Kimmel and Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon return the favor, airing reruns on Thursday to reduce competition with Colbert's swan song.)