Late Night Last Week: Andy Richter is America’s Champion on Dancing with the Stars & More
(Photos: ABC, CBS, and Comedy Central)
Late Night Last Week highlights some of the best late-night TV (and related programming) from the previous week. Today, we cover Andy Richter’s run on Dancing with the Stars, a trio of music legends hosted by Stephen Colbert, and Jon Stewart’s contract renewal.
For too long, this column has neglected one of the most exciting developments in the broader ecosystem of late night television: Andy Richter is winning over the hearts of Americans everywhere on this season’s Dancing with the Stars.
Your humble correspondent has been one of the thousands of fans closely following the developments via Richter’s Instagram page, which has featured a medley of wonderful behind-the-scenes videos, including bits with members of the production team and footage from practice sessions with his dance partner, Emma Slater. For those of us who are proud members of Richter Nation and rooting for Conan O’Brien’s longtime late night sidekick to take this home, we can be sure that our man is in good hands. Slater has been on the show for 17 seasons, including the 24th, which she won with NFL veteran Rashad Jennings.
For the show’s Halloween special two weeks ago, Richter emerged from a cornfield dressed as a priest to dance the Paso Doble to Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67: I. Allegro con brio.” With a fog machine and all, Slater plays some sort of demon witch, who does her best to get the better of the priest, before he performs a brief exorcism, then drags her by the foot across the stage. It rocked.
The feedback from the judges has been consistent: Richter is improving week after week. Plus, as is clear to anyone watching, the man can act. What we saw in the Halloween performance was the face of a seasoned man of show business, fully knowing how to sell a performance despite any, well, dance-related shortcomings. Plus, the man played Father Harris in Scary Movie 2 for goodness’ sake.
While the pair are consistently the lowest-scoring partners remaining on the show, the avid fan base has kept the duo alive. After all, Richter’s performance is what the show is all about: a celebrity one might not expect who is taking risks and growing each week. And, of course, the charisma between the two is off the charts.
On the most recent episode, on November 4, Richter and Slater earned a score of 30, their highest yet, and a 21-point swing from their lowest score at their debut. The pair performed a Contemporary dance to “God Only Knows” by, you know, The Beach Boys. It was a moving performance, not only due to the admiring glances the partners shared, but also for how it represented Richter’s own journey on the show.
The judges picked up on this immediately, thanked Richter for throwing himself into their art, and for doing his best to learn and grow from it. “Dance is like a mirror and a hammer at the same time. It shows you who you are, but also it can break you open and discover something even more,” said Derek Hough. “And I think that’s what we’ve seen with you.”
Richter, smiling all the way, agreed.
“It had a kind of childlike honesty,” Bruno Tonioli added. “I think that is the secret: it’s your honesty. You do what you can. You are relatable.”
“That is why you’re becoming the people’s champion,” he added.
The people’s champions will return on Tuesday, November 11, when they are scheduled to dance the Quickstep to “Puttin’ on the Ritz,” with music by Robbie Williams. Um, yeah, we’ll be watching.
Meanwhile, over on CBS, it was music legends week with Stephen Colbert. On Monday, the great Mavis Staples joined to sing from her new album, “Sad and Beautiful World.” The album is Staples’ 14th solo album, and includes a mix of original songs and covers. Plus, Buddy Guy, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Tweedy, and others make appearances on the album.
With Colbert, Staples gave a beautiful rendition of “Human Mind.” While Staples didn’t stop by the couch on this appearance, check out their 2016 conversation here.
Then on Tuesday, it was Robert Plant, who joined to talk about his new album, “Saving Grace.” The album draws on ethereal folk music from Wales, where the album was partially recorded. Colbert asked Plant about spending time in the “dreamworld” of his mind while making music. What is it that he draws on for creative inspiration?
“It all began with Kirk Douglas and Tony Curtis,” he declared. Plant went on to describe the experience of seeing The Vikings (1958) on the big screen in Technicolor, watching men throw weapons and jump chasms. Such experiences at the movies, coupled with collecting stamps, reading history books, and long drives to the Welsh mountains, later inspired his songwriting.
“Saving Grace” was born in part out of Plant’s time in Nashville. He told Colbert that he would end his recording sessions by going to the pub and talking about the “misty mountains” and all the “magnificent abstraction” one encounters living near the Welsh border. Then, he said, a man walked up to him and began talking about the folk music found there and throughout Britain and Ireland. “My heart took flight,” Plant said. And thus, the album was born.
Then, just a few days later, Colbert played host to Patti Smith, who also talked about inspirations and dreams. Colbert asked how she decided to write her second memoir, Bread of Angels. “I had a dream that the book came in the mail and it was already written,” Smith said. In the dream, she was reading the book, admiring its beautiful design and the way it expressed gratitude towards the people she has loved in her life. “I woke up like this,” she said, cupping her hands. “I was still holding it, and I thought it was a sign I should write it.”
But Smith did not stop by just for an interview. With Tony Shanahan on the piano, Smith delivered a beautiful rendition of her 2004 song, “Peaceable Kingdom.” Just watch.
And finally, we end with The Daily Show. The biggest bit of late night news last week was that the great man of the genre, Jon Stewart, signed an extension to stay with The Daily Show through 2026. Though the show is earning some of its best ratings in years, this was not always a given. After the cancellation of Stephen Colbert, who some speculate was taken off the air for political reasons, it was unclear whether Stewart would meet a similar fate. But it seems that in this case, cash was at least partially king.
On Monday’s episode, Stewart was back in his element, pointing out hypocrisy like no other. The focus of his attention was, naturally, on the government shutdown and the Trump Administration’s refusal to fund healthcare subsidies while at the same time bailing out Argentina. Stewart played a clip of Trump saying to a reporter, whom he called a “young lady,” that Argentina was fighting to survive and that she, the reporter, had no idea about it.
Apparently, cuts to things like SNAP benefits during a shutdown don’t count as urgent suffering, Stewart observed. He also noted Trump’s longstanding ties to the Argentinian leader. “How nice for Argentina,” he said. “If only our president had an in with Donald Trump.”
Damn, this Stewart guy is good.
Will DiGravio is a Brooklyn-based critic, researcher, and late night comedy columnist, who first contributed to Paste in 2022. He is an assistant editor at Cineaste, a GALECA member, and since 2019 has hosted The Video Essay Podcast. You can follow and/or unfollow him on Twitter and learn more about him via his website.
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