a-hole, why am i doing it? your instincts are terrible. not journalistic. your show business instincts. >> reporter: what a wild ride it's been for the colbert nation, from colbert hosting the white house correspondents dinner and roasting president bush to hosting his show in a war zone and of course all of this -- >> running for president, saving the olympics, colbert super pac, treadmill in space, the rally to restore sanity and/or fear -- none of that was really me. you, the nation, did all of that. i just got paid for it. >> reporter: colbert now moves up the street in manhattan to cbs and the famed ed sullivan theater will he will succeed david letterman as host of "the late show." he will just be stephen colbert. stephen, we hardly knew ye.