Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report premiered in 2005.
The program debuted on October 17, 2005, with Stephen Colbert playing a fictionalized, self-important conservative news commentator. The character had been developed during Colbert’s work as a correspondent on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
The Colbert Report parodied the visual language and argumentative style of cable news programs. Its title deliberately echoed the surname of its host-character, creating a mock news brand centered on exaggerated certainty and political commentary.
The series ran for nine years and ended in December 2014, shortly before Colbert took over CBS’s The Late Show. It is distinct from The Daily Show, even though both programs were produced by Comedy Central and shared satirical news roots.