Late Late Show Highlights
Well, our worst fear has come true: After ten years as host of The Late Late Show, Craig Ferguson is leaving his post at the end of the 2014. He made the announcement during last night’s cold open, which makes it the suckiest cold open ever:
Fortunately, they’re “keeping it classy, all the way to Christmas.”
Here were my favorite monologue jokes:
It’s a great day for America, everybody. It’s not a great day, though, for Donald Sterling, the owner of the LA Clippers. You know it’s bad when you get caught on tape with your mistress, and it’s what you said that’s the problem.
Right now every NBA fan here in LA knows there’s a dark cloud of shame hanging over the Staples Center; but enough about the Lakers, there’s also that Sterling thing.
Big new in Hollywood: Aquaman is making his big screen debut. It will be in the Justice League movie. This is the problem I got with Aquaman: how does he get into the Justice League headquarters? It’s an all-glass building; there’s no rivers or streams leading into it. It gives me a bad feeling that he arrives through the toilet.
The comedy segment bits were phone calls and “Tweetmail”. It was pretty silly:
LL Cool J was the first couch guest. He stars on the show NCIS: Los Angeles. The interview was fine. LL was friendly, animated and amusing. He’s a nice guy, and he was very kind to Craig about the decision to move on. The problem I had was that, overall, the interview just wasn’t entertaining or engrossing. I dunno why exactly.
Candice Accola was the second couch guest. She stars on the show The Vampire Diaries. The interview was better than expected. I have many biases in life, and one of them is that stars of CW shows aren’t the most fascinating people to talk to. In this case, however, I was mostly wrong. Candice was pleasant, down-to-Earth and had some interesting stories. She handled herself very well and kept me engaged for the entire interview.
The closing segment was ok, but we’re gonna skip it.
Good show, despite the horrible news. I give it:
– Woody
Personally, I think the fact that Craig announced it to all of his viewers in the cold open proves him to be the classiest guy in Late Night. Honestly, he probably would have announced it a month ago if Dave hadn’t done his.
I will miss Craig’s show. I’m happy he’s leaving of his own choice. Now that I absolutely can’t go see his show live, I plan to work a little harder to see his stand-up live.
On the other hand (the less sad hand), I think this opens up a world of possibilities for Stephen Colbert at the 10:30 spot. It will be easier for him to do his own thing knowing that Craig’s strange hilarity won’t be following. Granted, it may take Stephen a while to loosen up to do crazy things…
And the question of who takes over after Craig… I know what sounds like bad ideas. I don’t know what sounds like good ideas. I hope they can find someone interested in “disdain for the format.” I liked that about Craig a lot. But I don’t really want them to get someone who is going to try to be Craig or try to do Craig’s show.
Chris Hardwick and Neil Patrick Harris come to mind. They both have “part right”, but neither actually sounds right. I’d love to see a lady in the timeslot, but I have no ideas or remote possibilities in mind. Hopefully it’s not going to be Moonves’s wife – doesn’t she already host enough on CBS?
I kinda think it might be interesting if they were to have a “rotating” host slot. You’d have to have a strong sidekick, but I think that would be an interesting idea that no one in their right minds would green light.
Just my thoughts.
In December, I’m likely to go back to avoiding ALL network late night completely.
I’d like to see Sarah Silverman or Aisha Tyler. I think either one would be terrific at 12:30.
I can’t imagine Sarah Silverman wanting to do it, honestly. Aisha, maybe, if she can get out of her other gigs. I don’t know how catchy CW “whose line” contracts are.
Yeah, I doubt either one would do it, but I think either one be a really perfect fit with 12:30.