trow125

I always assume when it says TBA that it's going to be a major "get" that they want to keep quiet. Personally, I'd bet on Hillary in a pre-Iowa Caucus appearance. I don't think it'd be Bernie since he's already appeared on "The Nightly Show" three times so it wouldn't be as big a deal.

1/25: Gad Elmaleh (comedian) 1/26: TBD 1/27: Jerry Seinfeld (comedian – promoting “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee”) 1/28: Ryan Lizza (CNN Contributor and Washington Correspondent for The New Yorker)

James Spader added to tomorrow's lineup: Wednesday, Jan. 20 James Spader; New York Jets Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall; Host and Executive Producer of “Serial” Podcast Sarah Koenig; Rev Run Next week: Monday, Jan. 25 Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Oklahoma City Thunder Point Guard Russell Westbrook; musical performance by Anderson.Paak and the Free Nationals Tuesday, Jan. 26 Laurence Fishburne; Sarah Paulson; musical performance by Woke Wednesday, Jan. 27 Chris Pine; Actress Danielle Brooks; musical performance by Bauer Thursday, Jan. 28 Josh Brolin; John Dickerson, host of CBS News’s “Face The Nation”; musical performance by Aubrie Sellers Friday, Jan. 29 Stand-up performance by and interview with Jerry Seinfeld; Senator Rand Paul; musical performance by Andra Day (OAD: 1/6/16)

I now have about 10 episodes of LSSC piled up on my TiVo, whereas with TCR I always felt compelled to watch them immediately, often staying up 'til midnight so I could see the show as soon as possible. Reading through these posts at least shows me some sketches that may be worth seeing out, and a few to avoid.

Jessica will be appearing in San Francisco this week at the Sketchfest comedy festival, so I'm guessing she has stand-up gigs and other irons in the fire. Here's an article about her comedy duo 2 Dope Queens. (They're supposed to have a podcast debuting this month, but I haven't been able to find it so it may not be out yet.)

Now that the format of the show has settled down into "two regulars, one guest," one of the talent bookers for TNS is going to start providing me with the upcoming-guest listings for the panel. Here are next week's guest panelists: Monday 1/18 - Rembert Browne Tuesday 1/19 - Romany Malco Wednesday 1/20 - Dan Savage Thursday 1/21 - Jemele Hill

Mo 1/18: Rich Eisen, Ron Funches, Adam Savage Tu 1/19: Patton Oswalt, Judah Friedlander, Shelby Fero We 1/20: Jen Kirkman, Flula Borg, James Davis Th 1/21: Jordan Morris, Erin Gibson, Bryan Safi Mo 1/25: Grace Helbig Tu 1/26: Marlon Wayans, Affion Crockett, Jenny Zigrino We 1/27: Matt Braunger, Ryan Stout Th 1/28: Kyle Kinane Mo 2/1: Kurt Braunohler, Phoebe Robinson, Jonathan Kite

The one good thing about Jon leaving is that I no longer feel obligated to watch the interviews unless I'm REALLY interested, which has been a big time saver. On the fence about Rand Paul tonight, since even though I disagree with him about nearly everything, the fact that he's a co-guest with Tavis Smiley intrigues me.

Monday, Jan. 18 Patricia Heaton; Quincy Jones; Civil Rights Activist Deray McKesson; musical performance by Grace Tuesday, Jan. 19 Charlie Day; Colin Hanks from the CBS comedy series “Life in Pieces”; musical performance by Margo Price Wednesday, Jan. 20 New York Jets Wide Receiver Brandon Marshall; Host and Executive Producer of “Serial” Podcast Sarah Koenig; Rev Run Thursday, Jan. 21 Christian Slater; Josh Radnor; interview with and musical performance by Iggy Pop Friday, Jan. 22 Steven Tyler; Gaby Hoffman; musical performance by Låpsley

Rand Paul has been added to Wednesday's show: 1/13: Tavis Smiley (host of PBS’s “Tavis Smiley” & author – promoting book “The Covenant with Black America - Ten Years Later”) AND Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY, Republican Presidential Candidate) 1/18: Moira Demos & Laura Ricciardi (directors of Netflix docu-series “Making a Murderer”) 1/19: Jess Glynne (artist – promoting debut album “I Cry When I Laugh”) 1/20: Gael Garcia Bernal (actor – promoting Amazon series “Mozart in the Jungle”) 1/21: Marlon Wayans (actor – promoting movie “Fifty Shades of Black”)

I would bet the next logical person to do a full week would be Nikki Glaser in advance of her new Comedy Central series. I'm sure she'll be on soon to promote it. I didn't know Funches' weight had been a topic on Undateable Live. I'm not much of a sitcom fan, so despite the fact that he's my #1 favorite @M panelist, I've never watched it. (Plus the series seems a little overly "millennial" for this Gen X'er.)

Speaking of Funches, last time he was on, some people here commented that he appeared to have lost weight. I saw Funches (and Hodgman too, for that matter) at SF Sketchfest this weekend and he mentioned during his set that he'd lost over 100 lbs. last year.

Mo 1/11: Pete Holmes, Jackie Kashian, Brett Gelman Tu 1/12: Paul F. Tompkins, John Hodgman, Joe Randazzo We 1/13: Sean Donnelly, Chelsea Davison, Adam Newman Th 1/14: Whitney Cummings, Matthew Gray Gubler, Nick Swardson Mo 1/18: Rich Eisen Tu 1/19: Patton Oswalt, Judah Friedlander

1/11: Colin Quinn (comedian & actor – promoting web series “Cop Show”) 1/12: Greg Gutfield (Fox News Channel and author of “How To Be Right”) 1/13: Tavis Smiley (host of PBS’s “Tavis Smiley” & author – promoting book “The Covenant with Black America - Ten Years Later”) 1/14: Ice Cube (rapper & actor – promoting movie “Ride Along 2”)

Monday, Jan. 11 Actress Jane Lynch, from the CBS comedy series “Angel From Hell”; Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Julian Castro; musical performance by EL VY Tuesday, Jan. 12 Actress Saoirse Ronan; CEO of Yelp Jeremy Stoppelman; “Making a Murderer” Filmmakers Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos; musical performance by James Bay Wednesday, Jan. 13 Paul Giamatti; Artists Guerrilla Girls; Professional bull rider J.B. Mauney Thursday, Jan. 14 Olivia Munn; T.J. Miller; musical performance by Father John Misty Friday, Jan. 15 Astronaut Scott Kelly; U.S. Women’s Soccer star Abby Wambach; Comedian Maria Bamford

I stayed up late just because I figured there'd be a Hungry for Power Games and was very disappointed when there wasn't! The Jeb! sketch was a poor substitute.

Theme song news:

Comedy Central press release:

The pinball museum is not far from my house and I walked past it earlier today (though it was closed for New Year's Day), so I was SUPER excited to see that clue. Though it was sad nobody got it right. Not that I expected anyone would be familiar with the museum itself, but still, "recreational machines with flippers" -- what else could it be?

Ha, I'm also a big fan of those books, and when Alex made that comment, I thought, "Mma Ramotswe would be very disappointed to hear him say that!"

1/4: David Cross (comedian & actor - promoting Netflix show "Todd Margaret") 1/5: Ryan Coogler (director - promoting movie "Creed") 1/6: David J. Peterson (author - promoting book "The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building") 1/7: Dalia Mogahed (Director of Research at The Institute for Social Policy and Understanding)

Monday, Jan. 4 Samuel L. Jackson; Google Science Fair Winner Olivia Hallisey; musical performance by Foals Tuesday, Jan. 5 John Krasinski; Geneticist George Church Wednesday, Jan. 6 Stand-up performance by and interview with Jerry Seinfeld; Senator Rand Paul; musical performance by Andra Day Thursday, Jan. 7 Actor Damian Lewis; Actress America Ferrera; performance by the Floyd-Little Double Dutch Team Friday, Jan. 8 Matthew Broderick; Space Archaeologist Sarah Parcak; musical performance by Kacey Musgraves

That ("Ask a Muslim") sounds like something the late, great "Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell" would have done. They were really good at person-on-the-street stuff. BTW, I am on some kind of mailing list for Comedy Central superfans and occasionally got a survey from them about their programming. About a week ago I got one with lots and lots of questions about TNS. They are doing a focus group via phone about it in early January. I opted out of the focus group because my daytime schedule tends to vary and I didn't want to commit to anything, but I did answer all the survey questions. You had a chance to give them your opinion of each correspondent, so I was able to convey my love for Mike Yard and my disdain for Ricky (I did note that he'd been somewhat better on the last panel he was on). There were also questions about whether you'd like to see panels with only one or two participants instead of three. Anyway, if the show shakes up its format a bit in 2016, it may be in response to the opinions they get from regular TNS viewers.

I follow "Janice" (LWT writer Jill Twiss) on Twitter, so I just sent her the link. Hopefully she'll enjoy it. And I'm delighted that somebody finally made a Janice supercut!

Mo 1/4: Doug Benson, Jonah Ray, Michaela Watkins Tu 1/5: Doug Benson, Matt Besser, Mary Holland We 1/6: Doug Benson, Chris Cubas, Jamie Lee Th 1/7: Doug Benson, Rory Scovel, Erica Rhodes