The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson - General Discussion

[Kaoteek]

Apatow was an okay host, albeit very "stand-up comediany" during its monologue. Sandler was his typical self... and sadly, Lena Dunham was, too. Ugh.

[halopub]

I guess he taped it this week but Letterman is scheduled to appear on the Late Late Show Tuesday. Reege is guest hosting.

[opus]

I guess he taped it this week but Letterman is scheduled to appear on the Late Late Show Tuesday. Reege is guest hosting.

Someone in the Letterman topic said Regis was taping his episodes in NYC.

[jjj]

I'm sorry, but the mishmash that has replaced a treasure like Craig is insulting to him and to us.  I would totally tune in for repeats, have no time for what they are playing at in Craig's time slot.

 

I did not know his syndicated show was kaput until I came here this evening.  That is a shame. 

[Brattinella]

I'm sorry, but the mishmash that has replaced a treasure like Craig is insulting to him and to us.  I would totally tune in for repeats, have no time for what they are playing at in Craig's time slot.

 

I did not know his syndicated show was kaput until I came here this evening.  That is a shame. 

I agree 100%.  Done.  Sorry beyond words that it is gone, and I miss it terribly. 

[dbrits]

I'm sorry, but the mishmash that has replaced a treasure like Craig is insulting to him and to us. I would totally tune in for repeats, have no time for what they are playing at in Craig's time slot.

This. And it's what I expected and it's why I haven't been watching. I am intrigued by Regis' Letterman so I'll tune in for that.

[jjj]

I'll watch Letterman anyplace, so will watch in this slot. 

 

But most evenings, it feels like Craig's time got abducted by infomercials.  The Talk looks like a QVC show to me. (And I don't watch QVC.)  I'm sorry, I like Drew Carey, but it is jarring to see him at that hour.  Dear CBS, we will all have discovered other 12:35 AM shows by the time you literally get your act together.  Reruns would have solved this! 

[Jaded]

I keep watching and for the most part because these episodes have been like a wreck that's hard to look away from even though you want to. There were things about all of them that annoyed me the most being Jim Gaffigan and his kids being on so many times throughout each episode. I really hope they were having fun. It's one thing for guests to be on to promote upcoming projects but when it's a continuous line of guests, the host and the hosts family promoting the same thing nightly it gets old fast.
 

The other person who really annoyed me was Lena Dunham. Would it kill her to wear something with sleeves? She skeeves me out so much even if she does say things I agree with on the rare occasion more times then not she usually follows up with something that makes me want to smack her upside her head.
 

I liked Drew the most so far honestly and it wasn't weird for me seeing him at that time of night since I'm not a regular viewer of TPIR. He was awkward at times but in a cute way. I wish he could have hosted longer even though I know he'll be the last guest host before James starts.
 

Edited January 25, 2015 by Jaded

[Brattinella]

I keep watching and for the most part because these episodes have been like a wreck that's hard to look away from even though you want to. There were things about all of them that annoyed me the most being Jim Gaffigan and his kids being on so many times throughout each episode. I really hope they were having fun. It's one thing for guests to be on to promote upcoming projects but when it's a continuous line of guests, the host and the hosts family promoting the same thing nightly it gets old fast.

 

The other person who really annoyed me was Lena Dunham. Would it kill her to wear something with sleeves? She skeeves me out so much even if she does say things I agree with on the rare occasion more times then not she usually follows up with something that makes me want to smack her upside her head.

 

I liked Drew the most so far honestly and it wasn't weird for me seeing him at that time of night since I'm not a regular viewer of TPIR. He was awkward at times but in a cute way. I wish he could have hosted longer even though I know he'll be the last guest host before James starts.

 

I am SO glad I missed this episode!  Wear sleeves!

[possibilities]

How did you hear about the syndicated show falling through? I'm really disappointed about that.

[Jamoche]

One thing that's become obvious is that being a late night talk show host is not anywhere near as effortless as Craig made it look. With him, it felt like watching a conversation that you could be part of if only you were there; with these guys, it feels like being invited to a party and then completely ignored by the host. Even when, weirdly, they both fall into an "oh, we are such great pals, talking about things we've done together that nobody else knows about." Like, say, Craig and Michael Sheen bonding over a love of David Bowie to the point that I'm not sure they remembered there was even an audience - it was fascinating. This lot - oh gosh, you and your bestest buds made a movie/are making a show. Well, get back to us when you're done patting each other on the back.

[jjj]

How did you hear about the syndicated show falling through? I'm really disappointed about that.

Well, I saw references to it here, then went to Google News and saw the syndication arrangement had fizzled.  Very disappointing. 

[Brattinella]

Oh My GOD is THAT the new set?  My poor eyes!

 

And the host is Regis Philbin and the guest is Susan Sarandon and this is EXCRUCIATING.

Edited January 27, 2015 by Brattinella

[Kromm]

Oh My GOD is THAT the new set?  My poor eyes!

 

And the host is Regis Philbin and the guest is Susan Sarandon and this is EXCRUCIATING.

It would only be the new set if Corden is doing the show from New York.  I haven't heard anything about that.

[Jaded]

Regis was hosting from the "CBS This Morning" studio.

[Brattinella]

Ahh, thanks folks!  That abomination viewed on a daily basis would be my demise.

[dbrits]

Craig Ferguson Signs TV Deal With Lionsgate

Craig Ferguson and his production company, Green Mountain West, have entered into a multi-year overall television agreement with Lionsgate. Ferguson will develop and produce scripted and unscripted programming, working with Green Mountain’s president Phil Cottone and former The Late Late Show producer Michael Naidus.

http://deadline.com/2015/01/craig-ferguson-lionsgate-deal-tv-1201360589/

Anything that will get Craig back on my TV on a regular basis is a good thing in my book.

[Jamoche]

Donald Trump? So, did Craig make a joke once about what the show would look like if it were aimed at the typical CBS audience? Because it looks like CBS took him seriously.

[Brattinella]

<===Stampeding out the door!

[stonehaven]

I only watched the Dave and Paul segment...I will miss Dave and Reege sparing together..

[Kromm]

Well Whitney Cummings started off badly by giving us a segment with that annoying smug asshole Chris D'Elia right away.  Hint, Whitney.  Haven't viewing audiences already proven they don't want to see the two of you onscreen at the same time?

 

But boy did they put her in a bad situation.  A stand-up comic in a closed studio with no audience?  Screwed!!!

And then they showed a pre-taped ten or twelve minutes right in the middle with the Two Broke Girls girls... way to kill Whitney's in-studio momentum... assuming she'd HAD any.

 

Probably the single best line she had all show though was her final line, about how "if you want to tweet mean things about me my twitter handle is @AmySchumer".   I laughed at that one.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Kromm

[Brattinella]

Hey, CBS, you messed up!  Screwed the pooch!  You allowed this talented, intelligent and beloved entertainer to get away!  NO ONE can take his place!  You need to grow a pair and BEG and plead for Craig Ferguson to come back and at ANY PRICE he wants!  Do it, Moonves, do it, Letterman! Sack Up!

[opus]

 

(In other news, Craig's on Conan, Jan 28th)

This did not happen.

[Kromm]

Well while the syndicated distribution deal with Tribune Broadcasting may have fallen through, but apparently the developmental deal with Lionsgate is still on.

 

http://deadline.com/2015/01/craig-ferguson-lionsgate-deal-tv-1201360589/

To produce what, we don't know.  Perhaps some other kind of show if a nightly syndicated talk show (to pair with the existing game show) isn't going to happen.

[Kaoteek]

This did not happen.

 

Yeah, they cancelled a couple days ago, and haven't rescheduled yet. (third item on that page)

[opus]

Well Whitney Cummings started off badly by giving us a segment with that annoying smug asshole Chris D'Elia right away.  Hint, Whitney.  Haven't viewing audiences already proven they don't want to see the two of you onscreen at the same time?

 

But boy did they put her in a bad situation.  A stand-up comic in a closed studio with no audience?  Screwed!!!

And then they showed a pre-taped ten or twelve minutes right in the middle with the Two Broke Girls girls... way to kill Whitney's in-studio momentum... assuming she'd HAD any.

 

Probably the single best line she had all show though was her final line, about how "if you want to tweet mean things about me my twitter handle is @AmySchumer".   I laughed at that one.

You neglected to mention the co-host.

[Jaded]

That co-host was just awful and completely not needed at all. I didn't mind Whitney's actual interviews that much.

Edited January 30, 2015 by Jaded

[Kromm]

You neglected to mention the co-host.

There was a reason for that.

That co-host was just awful and completely not needed at all. 

Bingo.

[Jamoche]

Can it really be *that* hard to find a space in NYC where they can have an audience? This is just so dead!

[nowandlater]

I actually like having a different host every night.

 

Sure, some of them suck. But some are interesting.

 

I was shocked at how disappointing Whitney Cummings was.

 

But Adam Pally (and co-host Ben Schwartz) were kind of fun.

 

Late next week, guest host John Mayer has on Andy Cohen. (When Cohen was on Howard Stern, he talked about how he was invited to chill at Mayer's home in Utah or Colarado and how Mayer cooked for him....So it'll be interesting to see their straight male/gay male friendship chemistry.

 

 

Can it really be *that* hard to find a space in NYC where they can have an audience? This is just so dead!

 

Probably because they don't want to go through all the trouble for just one week of shows that probably nobody's watching.

[biakbiak]

But Adam Pally (and co-host Ben Schwartz) were kind of fun.

I agree they had a completely hey no one is watching lets just have fun vibe, but in a manner you could tell if both/either of them had time and support they would probably do a really entertaining show. I mean I was entertained but they could be successful on a consistent basis, that scene where Adam and the woman on the street missing the glove reminded me of classic Letterman or Billy Eichner both are compliments.

[Kaoteek]

Yeah, Whitney Cummings' "let's interview my friends" remote segments were fine, just as her in-studio interviews were, but all the rest (the opening, the "monologue", the co-host) was pretty, pretty mediocre.

 

Pally & Schwartz freestyling the entire show reminded me of Craig's style : it was fun, it was improvised, the interviews never necessarily went anywhere, but they did it with style, without ever getting boring or feeling rehearsed. Probably the only guest host (and co-host) so far where I thought to myself "I'd watch that on a regular basis".

[opus]

I find it weird seeing other hosts get wild standing ovations in what is still Craig's studio. Corden gets a new set, right?

[Kromm]

I find it weird seeing other hosts get wild standing ovations in what is still Craig's studio. Corden gets a new set, right?

I think its safe to assume they're using Craig's set BECAUSE they're building that new set (in another location).

[nowandlater]

I think its safe to assume they're using Craig's set BECAUSE they're building that new set (in another location).

 

But Craig just moved into this bigger location a few years ago.... does that mean Corden is getting Ferguson's old, much-smaller studio?

[Jaded]

Sean Hayes had a few sucky parts but I liked that he didn't make the whole show about himself and he did the interviews pretty well for never having had hosted a late night show before. I was pleasantly surprised with his first night. I'll admit I was somewhat hesitant to watch after his disastrous turn on The Millers where his character was even more obnoxious than Margo Martindale's was.

[Kromm]

But Craig just moved into this bigger location a few years ago.... does that mean Corden is getting Ferguson's old, much-smaller studio?

I suspect there are more than those 2 potential spaces in all of L.A.

 

CBS' Television City alone has 8 stages. Price is Right uses one, Craig used another.  Apparently Bold & The Beautiful and Young & The Restless still shoot there. So that's 2 more.  Dancing With the Stars, despite not being a CBS show shoots there.  So that's 5 so far.  And Real Time with Bill Mahr.  That's 6.  That seems to leave 2 open.  And that's even assuming they feel they need to shoot at Television City.

[alynch]

I'm pretty sure Corden is going to use the same stage. The final couple weeks of interim shows were pre-taped a while ago, so there'll a be a full month between the final LLS taping and Corden's premiere. That'll likely be when they move all the new stuff in.

Edited February 3, 2015 by alynch

[nowandlater]

I suspect there are more than those 2 potential spaces in all of L.A.

 

CBS' Television City alone has 8 stages. Price is Right uses one, Craig used another.  Apparently Bold & The Beautiful and Young & The Restless still shoot there. So that's 2 more.  Dancing With the Stars, despite not being a CBS show shoots there.  So that's 5 so far.  And Real Time with Bill Mahr.  That's 6.  That seems to leave 2 open.  And that's even assuming they feel they need to shoot at Television City.

 

I went to high school near Television City. I had no idea they only had 8 stages there. I saw Letterman tape there (when I was in high school) in the 90s.

 

Also, American Idol tapes there.

Edited February 3, 2015 by nowandlater

[kib]

I'm kind of looking forward to John Mayer hosting.  Years ago (before he got crazy-famous, banging every starlet in sight and turning into kind of a tool) he did a short lived show on VH1 called "John Mayer Has A TV Show" which was actually pretty entertaining as I recall.

 

He's got a wicked sense of humor (which can easily be perceived as being a garden-variety douchebag), a very good sense of comic timing and wasn't afraid of letting a little air out of the inflation of being a music star.

 

That was then and this is now, but the man does have something of a foundation to build a hour of acceptable Tee Vee.  It couldn't be any worse than Cummings and her ghastly sidekick, Gaffigan's Von Trapp family schtick, Apatow being creepy about Goldbulm's contortionist wife and poor Regis clinging on to maintain some bit of dignity of a 50 year career.

[Kromm]

I went to high school near Television City. I had no idea they only had 8 stages there. 

http://www.cbstelevisioncity.com/stages

[maryis1]

One thing I did notice about Regis when he hosted was that he had let his hair go gray after years of that henna-red dyed look. I thought he looked pretty good.

[MrWhyt]

Hey, CBS, you messed up!  Screwed the pooch!  You allowed this talented, intelligent and beloved entertainer to get away!  NO ONE can take his place!  You need to grow a pair and BEG and plead for Craig Ferguson to come back and at ANY PRICE he wants!  Do it, Moonves, do it, Letterman! Sack Up!

Except he doesn't want to come back, it's been clear that leaving The LLS was his choice.

[Kromm]

Except he doesn't want to come back, it's been clear that leaving The LLS was his choice.

I think the implication was supposed to be that this person prefers that Craig got the 11:35 slot (the one condition under which I think we all know he likely WOULD have stayed at CBS).

One thing I did notice about Regis when he hosted was that he had let his hair go gray after years of that henna-red dyed look. I thought he looked pretty good.

I believe he did that about 30 seconds after retiring.  I've seen him on talk show appearances since he left his own show and he's been gray on them.

[dbrits]

But Craig just moved into this bigger location a few years ago.... does that mean Corden is getting Ferguson's old, much-smaller studio?

Craig's old studio is where AMC's Talking Dead films. Chris Hardwick hosts the post-Walking Dead chat show and he's mentioned it numerous times on his Nerdist Podcast.

Chalk me up as one of those interested in seeing John Mayer host for the next few days. I like most of the man's music and I've seen him in concert several times, but sometimes he needs to take his own advice and shut his stupid mouth. He's either going to do very well or he's going to find himself eating crow. Again.

[MrWhyt]

Chalk me up as one of those interested in seeing John Mayer host for the next few days. I like most of the man's music and I've seen him in concert several times, but sometimes he needs to take his own advice and shut his stupid mouth. He's either going to do very well or he's going to find himself eating crow. Again.

I didn't watch the whole show but i think the cold open and the monologue were pretty good.

[kib]

In baseball terms, I'd say Mayer hit a solid double.

 

The cold open was fun, nice touch with the retro CBS color bumper.  Thankfully no dancers or children doing 'a big opening number'.  Monologue was solid enough, perhaps a little higher frequency than what an audience hoping the attend "The Price Is Right" and being diverted to LLS might be attuned to, but it seemed generally well received (Ferguson had the same problem for years).

 

If I were a network suit, my two notes would be first, John needed to pay more attention to his guests than his producer.  Very distracted looking for hints, clues, winks and nods from the floor producer.  As soon as he got engaged with the guest things started cooking.  Along the same lines, second note would be don't let the tech crew determine your pacing.  There were a couple of times , particularly when he made a break for the 'croon cam' that he'd hold up launching into something because he presumably wanted to make sure the cameras caught it.  They will John, they will.

 

The obvious highlight of the show was the Buckley song with John Legend, Mayer on the hollow-body, and a standup bass. Sublime. I could listen to that all damn day long.

 

Oh, and poppers...

Edited February 5, 2015 by kib

[Kaoteek]

Well, color me impressed, Mayer did a fine job with that first show. Sure, the monologue felt a bit stiff & rehearsed, and I'm not the biggest fan of the overall vibe that emanates from him, but nonetheless, he delivered a professional, well-rounded tv show.

[opus]

How dare they make John Mayer likeable.

[nowandlater]

How dare they make John Mayer likeable.

 

Dang! He's really good, isn't he?

 

Meanwhile, we'll be getting this soon...

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-saBF8oRS0