Just thought I'd start this.

Love the exploding Gephardt intro from Jon.

No doubt who the audience wants to win tonight.

Jon and Stephen. Together. Side by side. Awesome!

I am so glad that I set my TiFaux to record 2 hours.

Larry and Wyatt taking over the shows was my favourite bit

Good stuff. If nothing else, I thought that it was a whole lot better than the 2006 special. Having them actually together was a good idea. It was a bit weird at the beginning when Jon would talk with the correspondents and then Stephen would throw something in after it was over, but there was more interaction afterwards. I was drinking orange juice at the time when John Oliver went scatological, so I did not enjoy that.

Mine too.

I want to watch The Cenac Attack. My other favorite bit was Riggle knocking the ball out of the kid's hands.

I loved Rob Riggle as a lie-detector.

I thought it was a bit flat, personally. Also, I'm thinking it should be two hours long for the next presidential race, so they can squeeze in Congressional and Senatorial races. That said, the final piece was awesome. It does feel like this race has gone on forever, hasn't it?

From what I saw it seemed a bit flat, and a lot of ads so we were flipping back and forth and by 10:45 we were stuck on CNN/MSNBC.

What I did see was cute, but not as good as it could be.

It was a tad bit flat now that I think about it. It didn't really pick up for the second half, when they put their main focus on Jon and Stephen's interactions and their contrasting styles. When you got those two sharing a desk, you don't really need any wacky correspondent hijinks. They also probably would've been better off having only one guest. It was still very good overall though.

Anyone else laugh at Aasif's bit? From Stephen trying to "converse" to Aasif telling Jon "you really don't get the whole terrorism thing, do you?"

And Stephen with the TDS cast? Maximum overjoy!

Yes, Aasif and Samantha had the best of the traditional correspondent bits since they were able to use them to contrast Jon and Stephen. Aasif also had my favorite line of the night in closing segment, which you could tell they spent most of their writing time on, with "My grief is too strong for your logic."

On the other hand, Meg was not around for Stephen to harass.

She probably quit anyway ... couldn't take a joke.

What I saw was OK. Flat, yeah, but a good break from the repetitive commentary on the other networks so I wanted to stay tuned. But they were a good 5-10 minutes behind in the electoral tallies. I had to keep jumping away.

The red and blue cards, the revolving C on Colbert's side of the desk, were a perfect little touch.

How did Stephen have a cockatoo on his shoulder and not break into pirate-speak? I'm disappointed. I love Roscoe, BTW, and think Stephen should have him on his shoulder on every show. Just don't let Stephen Jr. see him! (Also, was anyone else expecting him to poop down Stephen's suit?)

Hard to believe Steve Forbes lost twice. I mean, the man is such a dynamo of charisma!

"There's got to be a morning after......" HA!

I knew as soon as I saw that boy with the red ball that Rob would whack it out of his hands.

So the election's over. Thank god! I'm sure the team will find plenty of other stuff to make fun of. Kudos to them for another great election season of skewering! Now all I want to know is if Meow-grat Thatcher is okay!

Yes.

I really liked it. It was way better than 2006.

I thought this was good. The election night shows have always struck me as hard shows to bring off, because they're not really of a piece with what TDS normally does, which is digest the process. It shifts its intent to be part of the reportorial process for one night, which feels strange.

I thought the only thing that was almost no fun was the segment with Forbes.

That being said, I really, really liked Aasif's piece, the Larry/Wyatt takeover, the goofiness of Jon and Stephen's back and forth (especially when Stephen donned the dark glasses and headphones to shut out the truth), and the climax, beginning with Jon's announcement of Obama's win--you could sense him close to breaking down. And I didn't care at all that it was electorially behind; that's always been true of these shows.

Dang, this show got me through what is the most stressful election night in my memory. Thank you Jon and Stephen!

I noted this, and it was really moving. I am glad that I was watching this when the election was called.

Will this be up on Hulu and/or Comedy Central's website?
I need to rewatch Jon's announcement because I was only listening and not watching when he said it!

The Larry/Wyatt takeover was my favorite!

I wonder how long the gang went and celebrated before they went back to work looking for things to make fun of tomorrow

I giggled probably to an inappropriate degree at Larry's "Whatever I want." that and the Cenac Attack won the night for me.

I think the Larry/Wyatt takeover was the best "bit", but I always love seeing Jon and Stephen just riff off of each other. And Stephen going into denial mode while everyone else filed out (and John O. having to drag him bodily from his seat) also came in near the top of my list. I love this: Stephen deliberately "vamped" at the end so that Jon could announce CNN's official announcement that Obama had won. And I'm still breathless over that.

I'm still snickering unnecessarily over Jon telling Stephen, "You're bringing a spoon to a spork fight."

That, & Rob Riggle, Lie Detector; is what got the most laughs from me.

Thinking back on the Harvad law guy who started talking about taking over the show. I wonder if alarm bells were going off in their heads. Shit this guy's going to step all over our bit

Yeah, MarquisCarabas, I thought that, too when it started "happening for real."

Larry and Wyatt was my favorite part, except for the part where I got to listen to Jon call it. Thank you for that, Stephen!

I'm on the west coast, and this was supposed to air @ 10 PM here (now), but CC is showing Scrubs instead..? I hope I didn't miss it, or they rerun it.

Ah, thanks LADreamr -- I'll check back then :) Wait, just saw the last comment...shoot. Well they have to rerun it sometime. TIVO says it should be on at 11 PM too, so I'll look for it anyway.

I am too. I think we're not getting it until 11pm. Don't know why, though.

I'm in CA and it started here at 7 pm. That would be 10:00 in NY.

Okay seriously. I'm on the west coast as well. TIVO says it'll be on at 10 & 11. It's STILL not on. What gives??!?!

What perfect timing - being able to announce Barack winning right at the end. Finally an Indecision that was decisive.

Also I noticed that Bush called Obama and told him "what an awesome night for you" so there is another 'awesome' Bush moment they can add to their montage. That must have been an awkward phone conversation.

For whatever reason, CC was midway through the Scrubs episode, "My Musical", at 10pm. Turk and JD were singing "Guy Love". At first I was all giddy because, seriously, what a perfect intro for a show starring Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. I was amazed that CC was able to get the rights to use it, until I realized that CC didn't get the rights and the scheduling is about 15 minutes off.

Does anyone know what's going on with that?

The live show went long, so every replay goes long, so everything is behind.

Just watched it after getting back from work, and while it wasn't perfect, I loved it. Jon and Stephen together again was gold. Lost count over how many times Jon had to prevent himself from cracking up, after one of Stephen's lines.

Other favorite moment was defintely Larry Wilmore and Wyatt Cenec taking over "the shows." Oh, and Aasif's bit was great as well.

And yes, capping it off by offically declaring Obama the President-Elect was fantastic; perfect timing. And man, that was a long celebration from the studio audience. Not that I blame them, of course.

I obsessively checked the tv listings for my airing (Denver cable system that gets the CC west coast feed.) They said it would be on 11-12, but that was wrong. They actually aired it live, from 8-9 pm MST (7-8 PST), then re-aired it from 9-10 MST (8-9 PST.) Stupid CC and tv guide listing.

This was 100 times better than 2006. The best was the banter between Jon and Stephen: "The audience isn't going for the animal cruelty jokes."

Love that the Pakistan-Afghanistan border looks exactly like Hawaii, and the "veiled threat to Al-Qaeda."

From the nytimes live blog:

I thought a lot of it looked like improv (not the correspondent pieces, but the Jon-Stephen at desk stuff). I also thought the two of them had more chemistry than most explicit TV love interests.

It was weird seeing Jon sitting on the right, though. That's where the guests usually sit. It made Stephen seem like the dominant player, even though they stuck to Jon-Officially-in-Charge as usual. Oh, and I loved that Jon finally got to win against Stephen in a competition (the flaming intro).

When they went into the closing piece about the campaign being over, I was sure they were going to throw in that making fun of Obama was going to be more difficult than making fun of Bush. They still could have done the rushing to the roof, but instead with plans to jump off -- yet still used the same punchline, with perhaps an aside of, "Wait, we'll have Biden..."

I, too, loved the Willmore take over, and really am ready for a Cenac Attack. And I thought the interview with the Harvard Law prof who taught both Michelle and Barack, was really cool and not something I saw any of the news network went for.

The show was live, which is probably part of why the scheduling is all confused. 10 pm eastern = 7 pacific. Plus the overruns.... I checked my listings and they are showing it again several times, but I'll bet the correct times are all tweaked for DVR listings because of the overrun.

I liked the joke about how the cities won't be burned like when sports teams win.... Wow, I'm tired. I retold that so badly that now I'm not even sure it was Jon and Stephen I got it from.

tonks, I noticed that "awesome" quote from Bush, too -- cringeworthy! He is really ruining that word for me.

(Btw, the quote you copied above is the same bit I linked to on the page before.)

I can't tell you how much joy I felt hearing from Jon Stewart that Obama was president!

My choice last night was either taking a Xanax and going to bed because I just couldn't stand the suspense, or curling up with Stephen and Jon. I made a wise decision.

When Jon called it, I nearly started crying with relief (apologies and respect to McCain supporters here). I was so glad to have gotten that news through my Stewart-colored glasses.



I thought they usually sit on the left, at least on Jon's show. On Colbert's they're on the right.

ETA: quote tags are good.

I want to thank the people at TWoP for letting me know about Jon announcing Obama's victory. My husband and I were watching the show delayed on a DVR and it cut off at 11:00, in the middle of Stephen's speech. I figured we just missed a few sentences, and wasn't going to bother to try and catch the rest, but when I read here that Jon announced the race for Obama, I knew we had to see it, so we tuned back in at midnight to catch the end of the repeat. We would have missed quite a bit of the show if I hadn't read here about the overrun.

Despite its annoying title ("Can The Daily Show survive Barack Obama?"), this article covers the correspondents' celebration pretty well. There are some nice quotes from Larry Wilmore and John Hodgman, Jason Jones, et al.

I'm *so* thrilled that they got to cover a presidential election with a happy outcome, for a change!

OK, I know I'm weird but my favorite line of the night was Stephen's response to Jon's question.

"What are you twittering?"

"Tweets"

That killed me. It was so odd and so perfect. And Jon's laughter was the icing on the cake.

Seriously, can we find about 100 more reasons to have these 2 work together again. Pretty please?

The funny thing is, I watched NBC from 7pm EST on. I switched over during commericals between 10-11 because I wanted to see Jon & Stephen together, but still remained w/ NBC & CNN. At 11 I had turned to Indecision 2008, & got to watch as Jon announced Obama's victory. I believe that Jon choked up a bit, like he couldn't believe that we have been given a reason to hope again. It was a great moment.

I was hoping that they would extend the show so that Jon could call the election. Once Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia were called it was clear that they could call this thing when the polls closed on the West Coast. I was so very happy to listen to Jon call the election.

The show felt uneven. I loved the rhino with the gun shooting a golden helmet on Obama and the cadillac dumping McCain's picture when they announced NJ. I wish they had done a bit more with that. Aasif's piece was wonderful. His return from Pakistan was funny. Rob as the lie detector was brilliant. Larry and Wyatt's piece was perfect. The piece on the roof was fun. Sam's "Why is it day light?" line was well timed and you knew that red ball was going to get whapped at some point in time.

I did think that Stephen would comment that he was blocking out the world for the next four years when he put on his goggles and headset.

It was more fun to watch then regular coverage but was not as sharp as I thought it would be.

I think the prof. was on NBC during the 8 pm hour. He said that he saw great potential in both Barack and Michelle, but thought Barack would make a great mayor and that Michelle would run for a higher office.

I loved the show. I think to make it less uneven would be hard. A lot of the stuff between Jon and Stephen looked improv-ed. I mean, they'd probably discussed some possibilities of what to do or say based on how the results were going, but it couldn't have all been planned. And I loved all of that stuff, even if it wasn't side-splittingly hilarious.

I think the only way to make it less uneven would be do more "generic" planned pieces, like they did in 2004 - like where they showed their "fancy reporting equipment." I like the less planned, less choreographed stuff better.

I think it would be awesome to watch election results with Jon and Stephen (or Jon and "Stephen") for real...just like on MSNBC or something but with my guys and humor and their real feelings. This was as close as I was going to get to that.