Risky Move

The Daily Show is spinning itself off while it's still in production, and going strong. See here.

So Stephen Colbert is leaving the Daily Show in order to do a sort of O'Reilly Factor-esque Daily Show style mock program. Of course, I understand Colbert's desire to strike out on his own, and Comedy Central's desire to make pile and piles of money.

But this seems like a risky move to me. Taking Colbert off of the Daily Show, and betting success on an unproven formula, just may work. But if it doesn't, is it easy to just move Colbert back to where he's so great? And if it does work, can the Daily Show stand to permanently lose him?

One problem might be that Colbert is such a good fake correspondent that viewers can't actually accept him playing the role of host. Unfortunately for Colbert, he may do his current job so well that he won't be welcomed by audiences when he attempts a different role--that of news/talk show host.

My guess is that I will give the new show a chance, but that the Daily Show will be noticeably worse off and that Colbert's show will struggle soon after debuting. Sorry to be such a Debbie Downer.