Hollywood actor George Clooney and Republican White House contender Jeb Bush were among Colbert’s first guests.
The former host of Comedy Central’s satire programme, The Colbert Report, opened the show with a sketch, singing the national anthem around the country. He also paid tribute to his predecessor Letterman, calling himself “a fan”.
“We will try to honour his achievement by doing the best show we can and occasionally making the network very mad at us,” said Colbert. “As long as I have nine months to make one hour of TV, I could do this forever,” he added.
The comedian played a hardline conservative in his previous show, Comedy Central’s satirical news show The Colbert Report, but he appeared as himself for his mainstream debut.
He was first seen singing the Star Spangled Banner with people at a bowling alley, in a factory and at a youth baseball game – where an “umpire” took unmasked himself as Jon Stewart – Colbert’s former colleague on The Daily Show .
As the segment ended, and Colbert walked on stage he was given a standing ovation by the studio audience, who chanted, “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen”. “If I knew you were going to do that, I would have come out here months ago,” he joked.
