This is late night check-in, a feature where I watch a full week of one talk show and discuss how it was. Last week I watched “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert”, from 9/8 to 9/11.

On Thursday night, during an interview with Joe Biden, approximately four minutes and thirty-five seconds went by without the sound of laughter.

Colbert allows this silence to happen. He doesn’t try to force banter that would stifle the conversation. Instead, he listens, as do we. The Vice President talks about his son, Beau Biden, who has recently passed away from brain cancer. Biden mourns his son with a kind of honesty and vulnerability you might expect to hear if you were eavesdropping on a private conversation. It was incredibly difficult to watch, fraught with emotion from a wound that’s barely healed. It was one of the boldest things I’ve ever seen on a late night television program. Despite its brevity (some of it was cut for broadcast, although you can watch the full interview online), it packed an emotional punch and left an impression about what it means to keep moving forward in the face of incredible loss. I can’t recall the last time a talk show allowed this much room for not only a guest to be so candid about their state of mind, but for the viewer to reflect on something so heartbreaking.

The aforementioned was the clear highlight in a week full of them during the premiere week of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” and a terrific sign of things to come. In a packed late night world, Colbert has already started to carve out his own territory, as evidenced by the groundbreaking Biden interview. Before its premiere, the expectations for “The Late Show” have been absurdly high, with all the popular questions rattling throughout the blogosphere – what will the “real” Stephen Colbert do? Will the format be different? Without his blowhard persona to grasp onto, will Colbert sink or swim?

Turns out we all had nothing to fear. Colbert is sticking to the long time late-night formula that has worked since Johnny Carson dominated the universe – monologue, desk piece, interview one, interview two, musical guest/comedian. And while that might seem disappointing to those who were hoping Colbert would completely re-invent the wheel, it begs the question of how in God’s name you could possibly pull that off?

What keeps this old format from seeming ancient is the way Colbert twists each segment to match his style. Yes, there was a monologue, but it was brief and devoid of topical jokes (“Did you see this? Did you hear this?”) that every other late night show includes. Instead, each night featured a few light jokes, quick anecdotes, some banter. No scripted bits, save for one night that featured a parade of famous NFL players making cameos as “new employees” of the show. It was the closest the show came to being flashy for the sake of being flashy. Colbert throws to the band, they perform the theme song, announce the guests, and Colbert sits behind his coveted desk.

The desk piece – which appeared every night – will feel familiar to any fan of “The Colbert Report”. Behind the desk, Colbert is at ease, delivering excellent political commentary in the same vein as his last show. Right down to the graphics and the videos, it feels right at home. Even without the blowhard persona, the jokes land just as hard, because the silliness and the wit is still in tact.

“Trump is now towering so high in the polls, he’s turned his own bar graph into luxury condos.”

When the show tries delving into creating sketches, it’s hit or miss, but that’s to be expected in its first week. Colbert has a wide range as an actor (see: The Dana Carvey Show, Strangers with Candy, his role as Harry in Sondheim’s “Company”) and I expect in coming weeks this will be explored. This week, we got “Big Questions with Even Bigger Stars”, which features Colbert and Scarlett Johansson trading faux-philosophical setups and punchlines. While it’s decent, it feels like a stunt Jimmy Fallon would pull. A segment featuring a cursed amulet that forces Stephen to plug Sabra Hummus fares much better, and assures us that the weirdness and absurdity of “The Colbert Report” will remain on “The Late Show”. The clear winner was on Wednesday, when Colbert donned a big furry hat, which allowed him to declare that “any proclamations I make wearing [the hat] are now and forever law.” My personal favorite: “Dogs shall be called cats, cats shall be called dogs, and neither animal will notice the difference.”

Based on this weeks interviews, it feels like this is where the show will really shine. Colbert is a gifted interviewer, and freed of his persona, he gets to really delve deep with his guests, especially since he now has an hour to work with. Speaking of guests, that’s something worth mentioning. The guest list for this week featured a Vice President, one Presidential candidate, two CEOs, two big name Hollywood actors, a comedian and an author. Looking at the guest list for the next two weeks (Tim Cook! Kevin Spacey! Bernie Sanders! Donald Trump! Jim Gaffigan! Archbishop Thomas Wenski(?)!) you can really get a feel for what this show wants to be. There seems to be no pressure to get big celebrity guests. You’re gonna get a little bit of everything on “The Late Show”, and that’s a great thing to keep the show fresh and entertaining.

A lot of comparison has been made over the past week to other talk shows, ratings, and Colbert’s ultimate place in the late night stratosphere. It’s an interesting question that’s too early to answer, although this first week of “The Late Show” showed nothing but tremendous promise. What few kinks will be worked on over the next few months. To those (like myself) who feared CBS would kill the creativity of Stephen Colbert in favor of something more mainstream, fear not.

The last segment of the premiere episode featured Mavis Staples and the house band (Jon Batiste and Stay Human) performing a cover of “Everyday People” by Sly & the Family Stone. The lyric I keep thinking about is “different strokes for different folks”. If you want to see a monologue with topical jokes and easygoing celebrity interviews, “The Tonight Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live” are a few channels away. If you want to see some cutting edge political commentary and an interview segment that will allow the following…

-Colbert asking Jeb Bush – to his face – how he will be any different from his brother.
-Joe Biden mourning the death of his son.
-Amy Schumer talking about how she used Katie Couric’s phone to text her husband “Anal tonight.”

…then “The Late Show” is just for you. There’s something for everyone in the world of late night, and Colbert fits in perfectly. After all, as “Everyday People” reminds us, we’ve got to live together.

FULL DISCLOSURE:

-A friend told me that if you switched over to “The Tonight Show” during the Biden interview, you could find Jimmy Fallon and Andy Samberg planking. Different strokes for different folks, etc.

-Music! The house band, Jon Batiste and Stay Human, are pretty good, and I like theme song too. Kendrick Lamar was fantastic. Paul Simon was Paul Simon. Toby Keith was…Toby Keith.

-I watched the second episode eating leftover pasta at 9AM because I was too lazy to pour myself a bowl of cereal.

-I kind of wish Stephen had stuck with the thicker, black framed glasses instead of the iconic rimless pair used on The Colbert Report. But it’s no big deal.

-Here’s a fun game: ask your parents if they are aware Stephen Colbert is no longer playing a character.