'Colbert Bump' Real, at Least for Dems

Researchers honor comedian on his birthday

(NEWSER) - Scientists who bestowed names of Bush administration officials on a trio of bugs have named a new Venezuelan beetle after Stephen Colbert, the Washington Times reports. "Last year, Stephen shamelessly asked the science community to name something cooler than a spider to honor him," said one of the scientists. "His top choices were a giant ant or a laser lion." More»

Missed calls, poor predictions

(NEWSER) - Pundits make mistakes. And Salon has tallied the biggest whoppers of the presidential campaign:

1. The “Palin bounce”—It fizzled and the Alaska governor has the highest negative approval ratings of a VP candidate in history.
2. “Sergeant” Schmidt will right the USS McCain—Steve Schmidt’s strategy of daily news-cycle ready attacks sacrificed long-term ideological coherency, and made voters see McCain as overly negative.

O'Brien-NBC deal said to be $45 million; tomorrow's his last Tonight Show

(NEWSER) - NBC and Conan O’Brien reached a pricey divorce early today, but that didn’t slow the Tonight Show host's relentless tirade against the network last night. A constant stream of monologue disses wasn’t enough, so O’Brien unveiled his latest revenge scheme: Waste as much of the network’s money as possible (watch full episode here ). Guest Adam Sandler then offered up his own story of being fired by NBC (watch in the gallery, along with other clips including Jay Leno bashing David Letterman’s married life and Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's two cents). Updates on the Conan deal: More»

Stewart-Colbert-O'Brien lineup would be a win-win-win situation

(NEWSER) - Conan O'Brien is about to go back on the market—but the late night talk show market is full. "ABC has already said it's not interested in hiring him," writes Patrick Goldstein. "HBO isn't prepared to get into the late-night talk show racket. And Fox has a lot of issues to overcome, starting with a huge lack of enthusiasm from its affiliates." His logical destination: Comedy Central. More»

Iraq stint brings back predecessor's 'easy-going' style

(NEWSER) - Taping his show in Iraq this week, Stephen Colbert channeled Bob Hope in an "unexpectedly charming" series of shows, writes Alessandra Stanley in the New York Times. Colbert largely stayed in ultra-right character, though he let it slip in places. His interviews were “pleasant, not barbed,” and his standup was “as easygoing and good-natured as many a Bob Hope performance.” More»