In the premiere episode of The Colbert Report, Stephen starts off the show with a segment called The Word coining the term "Truthiness". Other segments include: The Threat Down rating avian flu, basketball, babies, hurricanes and James Brady. Stephen interviews Stone Phillips, an Emmy award winning journalist and host of Dateline NBC. At the end of the interview, Stephen and Stone Phillips have a competition of gravitas.

Tonight Stephen welcomes country music superstar Toby Keith and star of Beer for My Horses, plus Keith performs the song of the same name.

Tonight Stephen welcomes former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan, author of What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception, Scott McClellan. Also, Stephen talks with former Georgia Representative and Libertarian Presidential candidate Bob Barr about the Libertarian party's "green" efforts.