Late Night Television

[Polybius]

Chelsea seems to be taking cues from Sean Young's playbook.

[domino harvey]

I miss Matt's Heckling Sean Young avatar

[domino harvey]

Ferguson is out by December

[Cold Bishop]

That sucks (and I hope he was indeed planning it) but who now? I'd love for Michael Ian Black to get a second shot, although I know it's not likely. Maybe try to tap into the podcast scene with Paul F. Tompkins, because, lets face it, no one has Fusion.

I'm sure someone here will pass on my recommendations to the heads of CBS.

[Jeff]

Here's the Variety story on Ferguson, who insists that not only has he been planning this since long before Letterman's announcement, he had no interest in hosting The Late Show.

[matrixschmatrix]

Tompkins was tweeting about how much he'd love to replace Colbert, and it's an open secret that he wants a TV show (you know, on a channel that people can actually watch.) He'd be an amazing host- as far as the late night triathlon goes, he's a practiced stand up, a writer-performer on one of the great sketch comedies (Mr. Show) and his Speakeasy interview series is a consistent delight. As much as I'd love to see someone who's not, you know, a white dude host a late night show, I'd probably be more likely to watch a Tompkins-hosted show than almost anything else.

[SpiderBaby]

Ferguson is out by December

And so goes the last bit of late night television I was even interested in (Ferguson has been nothing but a breath of fresh air in terms of the conventional late night hosting), adding in the future watering down of Colbert's talents. Back to Conan's antics I guess, which hasn't felt right ever since leaving his NY gig.

Hopefully Craig can find a new show to host. Would be interested in maybe a travel-with-celebrity style show, based on the interesting episodes of his travels to Scotland and Paris.

[Drucker]

Here's the Variety story on Ferguson, who insists that not only has he been planning this since long before Letterman's announcement, he had no interest in hosting The Late Show.

But he has “ideas” for new things and is engaged with the various projects that his Green Mountain West production banner is developing for Science Channel and Discovery. And he’s got a new gig starting in the fall as host and producer of the syndie gameshow “Celebrity Name Game.”

Would love to see him involved in those channels.

[mfunk9786]

Chelsea Handler is headed to Netflix for some reason

[flyonthewall2983]

Okay, Fallon's officially won me over now.

[Jeff]

British actor James Corden has reportedly been given the keys to The Late Late Show. I'd not heard of him before.

[colinr0380]

He came to prominence in the stage and then film version of Alan Bennett's The History Boys (a rather humdrum teacher-inspiring-his-pupils film which I'm not a fan of. It's a bit too patronising and smugly self-satisfied. And Corden, part of the ensemble cast of working class boys has only a couple of lines in the entire film, both of which are dirty jokes!). He was also briefly in the other 'working class student has to prove himself in an elitist academic contest' film which I like much better, Starter For Ten, involving romantic struggles between contestants competing on the BBC's long running University Challenge show, something which this US trailer hilariously completely manages to omit! (You do get a line of Corden calling somebody a "wanker" though!)

Then he went on to create and star in with Ruth Jones the BBC series Gavin and Stacey, which is one of those 'hugely acclaimed' drama-comedy series that just left me cold the few times I tried to watch an episode, despite the presence of Alison Steadman and Rob Brydon as daffy parents.

Then with his Gavin & Stacey co-star Mathew Horne, they starred in the horror spoof, Lesbian Vampire Killers, which is yet another example of a British comic duo failing to translate that television success to the big screen.

[felipe]

Corden will also be playing the lead role in the upcoming adaptation of Into the Woods.

[Numero Trois]

He came to prominence in the stage and then film version of Alan Bennett's The History Boys (a rather humdrum teacher-inspiring-his-pupils film which I'm not a fan of. It's a bit too patronising and smugly self-satisfied.

True enough. Though you gotta love that "Wilfred Owen's a wuss" line.

[flyonthewall2983]

Sort of funny but more interesting than anything else, Letterman had an on-air segment talking with Paul and his producers about what music they can't play (as seen here and here).

[domino harvey]

Oral history of David Letterman's Top 10 Lists

[domino harvey]

Tony Mendez fired from Late Show after assaulting writer and calling Letterman a "motherfucker"

[FrauBlucher]

Sounds like some kind of publicity stunt.

[flyonthewall2983]

Letterman's final show May 20th

[dx23]

The final Colbert Report was pretty cool, yet sad. I loved all the guests singing "We'll meet again" with Colbert to the point that it brought tears to my eyes.

[lacritfan]

Craig Ferguson's last Late Late Show is tonight.

[Werewolf by Night]

Also Darlene Love's last time singing "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" on Letterman (and she says she won't do it for anyone else).

[lacritfan]

What a great send off Craig Ferguson did at the top of his show.

And gave a little known band from his home town of Cumbernauld, Scotland great exposure.

[warren oates]

What does everyone think of the debut episode of Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show? I like Wilmore a lot, but I admit I'm a little disappointed that his show turned out to be a real panel show instead of the parody put-on of one I had imagined it might be, with different political positions staked out by various overblown comedic personas, sort of like a grotesque version of The McLaughlin Group by way of an assortment of The Daily Show's correspondents. It just feels a bit too much like what Bill Maher's already doing, in the same way that John Oliver's show feels too close to Jon Stewart's.

[Drucker]

I enjoyed it. I think the quality of all four shows you mention pales in comparison to Colbert and that just says a lot about the quality and inventiveness of his show. I also believe that...the dynamic for journalism/talk shows/news shows has just evolved to such a point, that Daily Show/Oliver/Maher just have become the de facto true journalists of television, in a lot of ways. If Wilmore's show isn't laugh out loud funny, it is true: it's a product of the way that genre has evolved.

That said, it was only one show, and there were definitely some first-night jitters, but Wilmore landed some great barbs. Bill Burr had a great joke or two, and having comedians going at it with with real news figures made the show enjoyable.