TVSquad

And then there were none.

David Letterman has struck a deal with the Writers Guild of America, and both his show and The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson (both produced by Letterman's Worldwide Pants) will return next Wednesday, January 2. The other shows are coming back on that day too, but a key difference is that Letterman's show will be coming back with his writers, thanks to this deal hammered out by Rob Burnett and others. Both sides have been trying to come to an agreement for the past couple of weeks, and it actually looked like things might have fallen through last week.

I don't usually watch Jay Leno's show, unless he has a particularly interesting guest on, and I'll watch "Headlines" every Monday night (it really says something about your show when the funniest, most entertaining thing about it is something like "Headlines"), but he made a joke the other night that made Deadline Hollywood columnist Nikki Finke think that he might be hinting at having another show on another network when he leaves NBC.

During his monologue last night, Late, Late Show host Craig Ferguson talked about all the craziness that Britney Spears has been going through lately (wearing no panties, shaving her head, in and out of rehab - maybe), but he refused to dump on her about it all. He talked about his own bout with alcoholism, and said that even though there's no real evidence that Spears has any alcohol/drug problem, "she clearly needs help."

Ferguson does a great monlogue, because it's very chatty and seems to be a combination of scripted material and just off-the-cuff talking with the audience, and when he talks about his own problems it takes the late-night monlogue to a different level that others don't have. More Jack Parr than Jay Leno.

For the record, we here at TV Squad still feel it's our duty to dump on Ms. Spears, when and if she deserves it.

• The Super Bowl officially begins at 6:30, but CBS' pre-game coverage started at noon. After the game there's a new episode of Criminal Minds.
• TBS has a My Boys marathon starting at 5.
• Animal Bowl has Puppy Bowl III all night (starts at 6).
• ABC, NBC, and FOX all have repeats all night (they don't want to compete with the game).
• At 10, HGTV has a new episode of Living With Ed.
• HBO has a new Rome at 10, followed by a new Extras.
• Also at 10: Showtime has a new episode of The L Word.
• At 11:30 (or after local news), CBS has a special Late, Late Show With Craig Ferguson, with Billy Bob Thornton, Hank Williams, Jr, Gloria Estefan, Dan Marino, and Mike Ditka.

Check your local TV listings for more.

I really like Craig Ferguson and The Late, Late Show. It's interesting that they're still using Craig Kilborn's old set. But all of that's going to change when Ferguson returns from a vacation week on July 24. Kilborn's old set is going to vanish, and a new set from Saturday Night Live set designer Akira Yoshimura will be in its place.

I always thought it was funny that the replacement they got for Craig Kilborn was another guy named Craig. Did they do it so they didn't have to change the towels in the dressing room?

I gotta admit that, even though I really like Ferguson and he's a completely different style from Kilborn, I'm probably one of the very few people who miss Kilborn. I think he brought something really different and offbeat (yet old school) about his show. I thought it was a funny, entertaining show and was sorry to see it go.

[via TV Tattle]