This isn’t a plan that was formed completely out of the blue or anything, and The Late Show has set up some interesting precedents for it in the past.
So even if not everything is new to your eyes, something will be.
And it was all preceded last year by Colbert going on video with his thoughts on one of the political debates, and that recording was used in one of that week’s repeat episodes.
One week last month was set to air three repeats in a row, but that idea got flipped by Colbert pre-taping a trio of eps ahead of time, so that CBS would still be running new installments, even if the topics covered weren’t up to the minute.