He’s back. After he departed from "The Colbert Report" nine months ago, Stephen Colbert is finally back on network television with his new show, "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert."

Colbert’s parodic hyper-conservative persona in his previous program made him a late-night icon, but many worried about his ability to host a show without the use of his famous personality. To my delight, the charismatic Colbert hasn’t lost a step since the days of "The Colbert Report," maintaining the same wit and humor that fans have grown to love.

The first episode of "The Late Show" aired on Tuesday, Sept. 8, on CBS, and is proving to be the next heavy hitter of late-night comedy. According to Entertainment Weekly, 6.6 million people viewed the first episode of Colbert’s new show. To put that statistic into perspective, that’s more viewers than late-night competitors Fallon (2.9 million) and Kimmel (1.7 million) combined. Rival hosts should be shaking in their boots after the success of Colbert’s first week.

Band leader Jon Batiste and his musical group Stay Human debuted as the house band for "The Late Show." Their New Orleans-style jazz added an inviting energy to the show that is unparalleled by any other late-night band. Band members frequently stood atop instruments as Batiste hyped up the crowd with his signature “Social Music.”

The four episodes that aired in the show’s first week were all populated with A-list celebrities such as Kendrick Lamar, George Clooney, Jeb Bush, Amy Schumer, Scarlett Johansson, and Stephen King. Vice-President Joe Biden headlined the guest list and was interviewed by Colbert for 20 minutes of the hour-long program. Colbert flexed his interviewer muscle while asking Biden questions, provoking some of the most honest, and memorable, answers I have ever heard from a politician. Biden explained the pride he had in his son Beau, who recently died from brain cancer.

“He was better than me in every single way,” Biden remarked. “He had this enormous sense of empathy.”

Biden went on to give advice to all of the people that are going through hardship.

“As long you’re alive you have an obligation to strive and you’re not dead until you’ve seen the face of god,” Biden said.

Colbert, whose father and three brothers, died when he was a boy and empathized with Biden and elicited some of the most emotional responses in late-night history. It was an interview of the ages, and was perhaps Colbert’s best. It was a very touching conversation that everyone should watch.

Colbert does a great job lampooning the media as he has done in the past, but entertainment is the main focus of the program. Unlike John Stewart, whose job was to analyze and critique the media in order to keep them honest, Colbert doesn't seem to want to take the reigns as the next voice that puts American media under the microscope. Colbert isn't trying to be the voice of a generation; he wants to be an entertainer. After putting on a mask for "The Colbert Report" for ten years Colbert finally gets to take it off and be himself. It's refreshing to see him be his true persona, but I will surely miss the days when Colbert put the media under the scalpel.

"The Late Show" is off to a fantastic start, and it will be interesting to see if it can ride the momentum from its first week. "The Late Show" airs weeknights at 11:35/10:35c, and can also be viewed on the CBS website.