The 35 Most Powerful People In Media

Trump bumps? The new normal for the players on THR’s annual list: setting the news agenda, sparking Twitter tirades and creating great TV (and magazines … and Snapchat video) — starting with CBS’ comeback kid

In July, I interviewed Stephen Colbert as he was preparing for live telecasts of CBS’ Late Show for the political conventions. He was still less than a year into his tenure as David Letterman’s replacement, and both ratings and buzz remained far behind the front running Tonight Show on NBC. A hot rumor at the time was that his slot would be flipflopped with his lead-out, James Corden. In conversation, Colbert was more upbeat than the public narrative would suggest. But criticism about his performance — “I’m a human being. Yeah, I care,” he said at the time — clearly was wounding.

What a difference eight months and the election of a reality TV star makes.

As I sit with Colbert in early April in his 12th-floor corner office above the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, he has just notched his ninth consecutive week as the most watched late-night show on television. He’s animated, focused and much more relaxed, like a man who has rediscovered his purpose. “What a privilege to be on TV right now,” he says.

In February 2016, several days after a huge post-Super Bowl audience watched an awkward and rambling Late Show, CBS chief Leslie Moonves invited Colbert to dinner at the 21 Club. The host was ushered into a private room where Moonves and Glenn Geller, the network’s entertainment chief, were waiting for him at a small, round table. “It looked like I was going to be assassinated,” recalls Colbert. “I said, ‘This really feels like a scene from Goodfellas. There’s no plastic on the floor, is there?’ ”