NEW YORK (AP) — CBS moved swiftly Thursday to replace the retiring David Letterman with Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert, who will take over the “Late Show” next year and do battle with Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel for late-night television supremacy.

Colbert, 49, has been hosting “The Colbert Report” at 11:30 p.m. ET since 2005, in character as a fictional conservative talk-show host. The character will retire with “The Colbert Report.”