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About 10 days before David Letterman went off the air, Colbert did check in with his predecessor before tackling the job. The two spent time in Letterman’s office, where advice was dispensed.
“I asked him questions for about an hour,” Colbert said. “He said he didn’t mind. He said, ‘Who would know to ask and who would care what the answer is?’ That was a gracious way to say only the person sitting behind the chair would care. We talked for an hour.
“I said, ‘Is there anything you would have changed?’ He said, ‘I would like to have tried the desk on the other side.’” So Colbert called his set designer and moved the desk.
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Interesting. I've seen a few hosts talk about this over the years, and those that have tried it, almost all switched to the traditional guests on the left, host on the right set-up after a little while. They said it's a strange thing, but having the opposite orientation really throws people off, for some reason.
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One thing that Colbert does know about the structure of his show is that in addition to the usual mix of actors, musicians, politicians and athletes, he would like to also have real people as guests if they have something to say.
“Sometimes people you don’t expect will surprise you,” he says. “All I want from a guest is someone who has something to say so I can play with them and so we have a conversation.”
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This is one part of his show that Carson excelled at, and all the guys who've followed him really haven't been able to pull off. Some of the best interviews I ever saw Johnny do were when his guest was just a regular person with an interesting story.
I think Colbert should be good at that. His early days on the Daily Show were a lot of those types of segments.