LateLateShow-related stories
Posted Aug 3rd 2009 11:02AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Late Night, OpEd, Talk Show, Reality-Free
When the late night musical chairs began, I dipped my toes into their waters for the first time in many, many years. The only three shows remaining on my DVR are
The Tonight Show,
Late Night and
The Late Late Show, and only
Craig Ferguson is a must watch from beginning to end (I've actually cut
Tonight twice and put it back since Conan took over).
The real hook for me is Ferguson's monologue. While everyone's doing, "Hey let's look at the news. Setup. Punchline. Setup. Punchline. Setup. Punch me in the face I can't take it anymore!," Ferguson is doing a short stand-up routine every night. It's smart, it's clever, and it all flows so much more nicely.
I've also enjoyed his constant rants about how terrible his show is, what a horrible host he is, and how incredibly cheap CBS is when it comes to anything to do with
The Late Late Show. But now, long after all of his competitors got the upgrade, we're finally getting
Craig Ferguson in HD starting August 31, 2009. So he'll have one less thing to bitch about, at least.
Continue reading Craig Ferguson finally getting a little HD respect from CBS
Posted Apr 24th 2009 12:04PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Reality-Free
There are a lot of great traditions in the world of late night. Every host has to endure the wrath of
Mother Nature's cruel comedy by letting an animal crap in their lap. Every host has to invite
a nutball celebrity who is guaranteed to shoot up or snort something in the green room five seconds before their interview.
But one lesser known, some would say downright boring, tradition has gone by the wayside. Maybe that's because the choices are usually something boring. There was
Johnny Carson's face mug,
Conan O'Brien's Eisenhower mug and some boring old mug that's so dull, they couldn't even sell it in the gift shop to tourists who would buy a bag of puke if it had the
Last Call with Carson Daly logo on it.
All of that changed when CBS' Craig Ferguson revived this grand tradition by jamming a cardiac needle of adrenaline into its heart with his mug.
Continue reading Craig Ferguson officially has the most badass mug in the history of late night
Posted Mar 6th 2009 2:02PM by Nick Zaino
Filed under: Late Night, News, Interviews, Reality-Free
Appearing on the
Late Show with David Letterman is a big deal for most comics. For Brian Kiley, who appears on the show tonight, it's a little strange. Kiley is a writer for Conan O'Brien (both for
Late Night and the new
Tonight Show), and starting June 1, his boss will be Letterman's direct competitor.
Kiley has done the Letterman three times before, he notes as an emergency replacement for another act that dropped out. And while he says he would never have gone on the
Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, since that show is in the same time slot as
Late Night, O'Brien and Letterman have always had a cordial relationship, and no one ever said anything before. That might change now.
"I kind of viewed it as, well, maybe this is my last time on Dave because the Conan people might not be into it," says Kiley. "So I don't know."
Continue reading Conan writer Brian Kiley defects to Letterman (for one night)
Posted Feb 25th 2009 10:02AM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Late Night, Reality-Free
The late night war is officially back on, folks, and it's about to get nasty because Paris Hilton has become CBS' weapon of choice.
Craig Ferguson and his
Late Late Show crew plan to turn the tables on Jimmy Fallon's first foray into his late night territory by launching a cluster of MOABs at NBC that are packed to the brim with Paris.
And no, we don't mean Ferguson literally plans to launch Paris into the
Late Night offices where she will unleash her demon whore spawn and turn Fallon's staff into a grisly smorgasbord of bloody flesh and gnarled bones. Let's be realistic. Paris would just hire someone to do that for her.
Continue reading Ferguson declares war on Fallon ... with Paris Hilton?!?
Posted Dec 16th 2008 1:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Late Night, Programming, Ratings, Reality-Free
Jay Leno's move into primetime surprised just about everyone with a television and a central nervous system.
NBC's
Tonight Show chair might have been the throne of late night royalty, but it's not an aristocracy. That assumption caused the infamous late night fiasco when Johnny Carson retired and pushed David Letterman to CBS. It's that same assumption that has everyone's jaws dropping out of their ligaments.
But just like the Super Bowl, little league baseball, or a hottest-wet-buns-in-jeans contest -- there must be winners and losers. Here are the people who should and shouldn't be loving Leno right now.
Continue reading Jay Leno, who loves ya baby?
Posted May 8th 2008 3:36PM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Late Night, Talk Show, Reality-Free
How hot is Craig Ferguson? By my thermometer, he's sizzling. His
Late Late Show has risen up to challenge Conan O'Brien in the Nielsens, he was the emcee at the
White House Press Correspondents dinner -- riffing on W. right to his face! -- and now the publishing world wants his story.
HarperCollins has signed Craig Ferguson to write American on Purpose, the story of his life from small town Scottish boy to big time talk show comic. The book is due to be published in the fall of 2009.
As the title suggests, a big part of the story is Craig's choice to become an
American citizen, which he did earlier this year. Craig said he hopes the book "...will inspire other alcoholic punk rock drummers from Scotland to find their true place in U.S. late night television." Well, I say to that, hooray! The talk show host also cracked, "I wanted to get the story down before I get so old I forget it and start believing the crap on Wikipedia."
Continue reading Craig Ferguson inks deal for memoirs
Posted Apr 12th 2008 10:09AM by Allison Waldman
Filed under: Late Night, Ratings, Reality-Free
Things are heating up in the late, late night wars. That's the 12:35 AM talk shows, as opposed to the late night 11:35 shows. In the most recent Nielsen ratings,
Craig Ferguson's CBS Late Late Show rated higher than Conan O'Brien's Late Night. That's the first time that's ever happened, and industry analysts are scratching their heads to figure out if this is the pendulum swinging in CBS's direction, or simply a minor glitch in NBC's late night dominance.
NBC has declared that it supports
Conan O'Brien completely and is unconcerned about the gradual shift in the numbers that have been going on for a while. It's in NBC's interest that Conan remain a strong player, especially since he will be taking over the
Tonight show in the near future -- once
Jay Leno's contract comes to an end in 2009. While tipping its cap to Ferguson for the ratings victory, NBC also noted that in the 18-49 demographic, Conan is still the leader in that time slot.
Continue reading Ferguson tops Conan for the first time
Posted Jan 29th 2008 4:43PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Late Night, Celebrities, Talk Show
Well, not quite...Craig Ferguson will become an official U.S. citizen in a few weeks. However, as the talk show host mentioned on the Late Late Show Monday night, he did take the test to become a United States citizen and received a perfect score. Something a good portion of U.S. citizens probably could not do (end of commentary on American society).
His quest for citizenship actually began as a joke last year when Ferguson was named an honorary citizen by the mayor of Ozark, Arkansas. After that he began a campaign to get the same designation in other towns and cities. The campaign caught on and, as of this writing, Craig has been named as an honorary citizen of over 16,000 communities and 23 states nationwide.
Continue reading Craig Ferguson -- U.S. citizen
Posted Dec 17th 2007 9:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Industry, WGA Strike
As the strike lingers on and the Writers Guild of American (WGA) and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) seem no closer to bridging their philosophical and monetary gap, the WGA is set to try a new tactic. According to Variety, the WGA is going to make a "legal demand" today for individual members of the AMPTP to schedule bargaining meetings with the WGA. However, at this point it isn't clear if the companies are legally obligated to do so, and if not, will they?
Continue reading WGA to seek individual deals to break impasse with AMPTP
Posted May 26th 2007 5:31PM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Industry, Music and Variety
Apparently, yes. Over the past week Craig Ferguson, host of CBS' Late Late Show (and, in my opinion, the apparent heir, to the David Letterman throne) was complaining how a show he had been pushing, Ghost Chimp, M.D., had not been picked up by the network. As the week went on sources like Comicmix.com were reporting that Craig's facetious idea seemed exactly like one created by comic book writer and artist Kyle Baker.
Continue reading Did Craig Ferguson steal Ghost Chimp from a comic book artist? -- VIDEO
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