The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

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The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson
The Late Late Show title card
Format	Talk show, variety show
Created by	David Letterman
Presented by	Craig Ferguson
Narrated by	Shadoe Stevens
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	900 (on June 19, 2009)
Production
Executive producer(s)	David Letterman Peter Lassally
Location(s)	CBS Television City Studio 58 Los Angeles, California
Running time	60 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel	CBS
Picture format	480i (SDTV)
Original airing	January 3, 2005 - Present
Chronology
Related shows	The Late Late Show
External links
Official website

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The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. Ferguson is the third regular host of The Late Late Show, which airs on CBS. The show's title is a variation of "Late Show with David Letterman", which precedes it in the CBS late-night lineup.

Contents 1 Show format 1.1 Sports highlights delays 2 Serious monologues 3 Production milestones 4 Ratings 5 Show elements 5.1 Theme song 5.2 Musical performances 5.3 Cold open 5.4 Impersonations and characters 5.5 Bob Barker 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Show format

The show starts with a cold open introduction, followed by a commercial break, then the opening credits. Craig almost always begins the show (after the first commercial break) by saying "Welcome to Los Angeles, California. Welcome to The Late Late Show. I'm your host, TV's Craig Ferguson". He then says to the camera "Hey! Look at you! Come on in", then begs his audience to stop applauding. He then usually begins the monologue by making a series of beeping sounds while cupping his ear (mimicking receiving an old time, Morse Code news flash or update), and then saying, "It's a great day for America, everybody!"

Craig's monologue is informal and largely improvised^{[citation needed]} and often spills over into his first segment following a commercial break. Ferguson reads and responds to viewer e-mail often. Other segments include loosely scripted^{[citation needed]} comedy sketches which feature Ferguson in costume or performing in collaboration with any of a number of semi-regular guests including performers such as Dave Foley, Betty White, Tim Gunn, Jeffrey Tambor, Daniel McVicar, Kristen Bell, Henry Winkler, Tim Meadows, James Adomian, Jamie Denbo and Steven Wright. Occasionally a guest will participate in a sketch, such as Ewan McGregor.^[1] Most shows include celebrity interviews and sometimes a musical guest and/or stand-up comedy act. Musical performances are often taped before the rest of a show.^{[citation needed]}

Ferguson has used many running gags that span multiple shows and have colorful animated graphics. These have included themed weeks such as "Crab Week" and "Shark Week" (though Craig admits^[when?] that the show's budget makes most of the themes limited mostly to graphics), a sound effects machine installed at his desk (which has been removed), "Dear Aquaman" (in which Craig dresses as the superhero and gives advice), and "Election Fever" during the run-up to the 2008 Presidential election. Another running gag is the "photo of Paul McCartney". When McCartney is mentioned in the monologue, Ferguson will call for a photo of McCartney, which is actually a photo of actress Angela Lansbury and vice versa. The show often uses variations of this gag featuring other pairs of look-alike celebrities.^{[citation needed]}

The show ends with "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?" (A tabby cat on a red background on different nights roars, meows, explodes with a human skull or has rockets on the paws) in which Craig, sometimes, summarizes the show.

The program is the only one of the major U.S. network late-night programs that does not have its own house band. The Late Late Show has never had a house band since it launched in 1995 with Tom Snyder as host. It is also the only network late-night talk show that has yet to begin broadcasting in High Definition.

[edit] Sports highlights delays

Since CBS holds the rights to several major professional golf tournaments, including The Masters and the PGA Championship, along with tennis' US Open, these events also include 15 minute-long late night highlights shows hosted by either Jim Nantz or another CBS Sports host summarizing the day's action. Previous to mid-2007^{[citation needed]}, Ferguson's monologue would air as usual, followed by Ferguson asking viewers to stay tuned for the sports highlight show (which would air shortly after), followed by the guest and musical portion of the Late Late Show, splitting an episode into two separate segments, one of 10 minutes and one of 45 minutes. After mid-2007 however, CBS decided to air the sports highlight shows between Letterman and Ferguson, allowing the Late Late Show to air its full hour beginning at 12:50am ET/PT on those nights.

[edit] Serious monologues

On a few occasions Ferguson's opening monologue has taken on a serious tone.

• On January 30, 2006^{[citation needed]}, Ferguson eulogized his father, who had died the day before. Ferguson was nominated for his first Emmy Award for the episode.
• On February 19, 2007, Ferguson announced he would do "no Britney Spears jokes", saying "comedy should have a certain amount of joy in it" and that it shouldn't include "attacking the vulnerable." He references his 15 years of sobriety and the struggle he had with addiction, almost ending in suicide.^[2]
• On September 10, 2008, Ferguson described his excitement about voting in his first U.S. Presidential election and ranted against American voter fatigue, stating, "If you don't vote, you're a moron!"^[3]
• On December 8, 2008, Ferguson remembered his mother who died December 1, while his show was on break. He told stories about his mother and how he felt after he had returned back from his mother's funeral in Scotland. During the monologue, as he recounted his father's death nearly three years previously and spoke of his parents being back together in death, he became emotional to the verge of tears and cut to commercial. Prior to the break, Ferguson mentioned that his mother wanted the hymn called "Jesus Loves Me" sung at her funeral because that was the only hymn to which everyone knew the words. After the break, he showed a clip from a 2005 interview with his mother and a second clip with his mother and RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan.^[4] Finally, he played his mother's favorite song to end the show, which was "Rivers of Babylon" by Boney M.^[5]
• On March 4, 2009, Ferguson dedicated the entire show to his guest, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.^[6] The intro and monologue gave a very brief history of South Africa and apartheid. There was no musical guest and the only interview was Tutu. This show was during a week of change in late night, with Jimmy Fallon opening his new show. Despite the goings on with other networks and shows, Ferguson's interview received critical praise from NPR's TV critic, David Bianculli.^[7]
• In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Ferguson has observed the anniversary of 9/11 on his show, once^[when?] stating that that day "never again, will be a great day for America."

[edit] Production milestones

A new set debuted on the July 24, 2006 episode^{[citation needed]}, after the previous one had been destroyed by Bob Barker and others from The Price Is Right. It included a miniature CBS dirigible that floated along over the backdrop depicting Los Angeles. In the week starting with March 17, 2008, The Late Late Show debuted a new set featuring a desk/interview area on a raised platform. The backdrop was also changed to a detailed representation of Los Angeles.

When the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike began, the show went into reruns. It resumed production on January 2, 2008 after Worldwide Pants and the WGA came to an agreement.^[8][9]

In 2008 Worldwide Pants Incorporated signed a product placement deal with Ford to promote the Ford Flex during The Late Late Show. Eight episodes ("with one repeat") of the show included custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a band called the Highlanderz, riding in a Flex as they traveled from Los Angeles International Airport to the CBS Studio. The skits were shown on successive Thursdays starting on September 4.^[10]

[edit] Ratings

In 2006, clips of The Late Late Show began appearing on the video sharing website YouTube. Subsequently, Ferguson's ratings "grew seven percent (or by 100,000 viewers)."^[11]

During the week ending March 31, 2006, The Late Late Show attracted an average of 1.9 million total viewers^[12], a number that increased to 2.0 million a year later.^[13]

During the week ending April 4, 2008, The Late Late Show attracted an average of 1.88 million total viewers; that week, for the first time since Ferguson began hosting, the show's "five-night week of original head-to-head broadcasts", which was later discovered to actually be four nights due to a difference in title^[14], drew a larger audience than Late Night with Conan O'Brien.^[15] Reuters noted that "Ferguson's bigger accomplishment seems to be that he has merely lost fewer viewers this season, with his total audience slipping 12 percent from a year ago, compared with a 24 percent drop for O'Brien"; the year-to-year decline in viewership was attributed^[who?] to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.^[15]

The Late Late Show encountered new competition on March 2, 2009, the first night of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. During Fallon's first week, the new show averaged 2.4 million viewers, a half million more viewers than Ferguson.^[16] Fallon maintained his lead over Ferguson during the show's second week, but by March 16, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson had attracted a larger audience.^[17] By the show's tenth week, Jimmy Fallon had maintained a 15% lead in total viewers over The Late Late Show.^[18]

[edit] Show elements

“	It's hard to stay up It's been a long, long day And you've got the sandman at your door. But hang on, leave the TV on and let's do it anyway. It's okay. You can always sleep through work tomorrow Okay! Hey hey! Tomorrow's just your future yesterday.	”
—Complete theme song from The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson[19]

[edit] Theme song

When Ferguson was hired as the full-time replacement for Craig Kilborn, he co-wrote and recorded a new theme song.

Beginning July 7, 2006, the show's theme featured only the ending of the original song, though by January 2, 2008^{[citation needed]} the full theme had returned, mostly intact.

[edit] Musical performances

At some point^[specify] The Late Late Show began taping musical performances separately from the rest of the show. For example, the band No Age were videotaped on October 2, 2008 for an appearance scheduled to air October 27.^[20] That performance was also the subject of an equal-time rule controversy in which Randy Randall was not allowed to wear a pro-Barack Obama T-shirt. Randall, not wanting to cancel the appearance, chose instead to turn the T-shirt inside out and write "Free Health Care" on the shirt with a Sharpie marker^[20]

[edit] Cold open

In mid 2008 the producers began to require that his show do cold opens to compete with Jimmy Kimmel Live who also starts with a cold open.^{[citation needed]} These are two minute segments before the theme song and actual show. Originally it was for a miniature monologue and to talk about the guests on the show. Over time this segment has expanded to include miniature skits and musical sessions, often involving puppets, and occasional interaction with members of the studio audience.

[edit] Impersonations and characters

Impersonations and skit characters frequently done by Ferguson on the show include Prince Charles (usually hosting "The Rather Late Programme"), Sean Connery, Queen Elizabeth II, Andy Rooney, Aquaman, Michael Caine ["in Space", "in Spain," and now presenting "Michael Caine's Animal Kingdom"], and Bono. He claims that he developed his imitation of Caine after an eight hour long plane ride, in which he sat behind Caine who "gabbed" with his wife the entire trip.^{[citation needed]}

Less frequent Ferguson impersonations include Dr. Phil, Simon Cowell, Kim Jong Il, Mick Jagger, Regis Philbin, Angela Lansbury (as "Jessica Fletcher" on Murder She Wrote), Jay Leno, Larry King ["of the Jungle"], Bill Clinton, and J. K. Rowling.

Occasionally one of Ferguson's crew members will dress up as and impersonate him, particularly while he is portraying someone else in a skit.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Bob Barker

A running gag during the summer of 2006 involved Ferguson going out of his way to pick on the recently retired CBS game show host Bob Barker who, Ferguson eventually concluded, was a vampire.^{[citation needed]}

The climax was reached on July 15, 2006, when Bob, flanked by the rest of The Price is Right's staff, including announcer Rich Fields and some of Barker's Beauties, staged a "surprise" visit. This was the last show before a long-planned replacement of the set. Although Barker did not injure Ferguson, he did do some serious damage to his desk with a single blow. The desk was later totally destroyed by the models, and Ferguson returned, after the commercial break, with a card table covered by a checkered picnic cloth. The episode ended with Ferguson helping the episode's musical guests, Family Force 5, completely trash the set.

Barker appeared on his show a few months later, after announcing his retirement and presented a portrait of himself as a vampire to Ferguson as a gift. Ferguson re-aired the interview segment as a tribute on June 15, 2007, the same day that Barker's last episode of The Price is Right aired.^{[citation needed]}

Barker again appeared on Ferguson on April 22, 2009 to promote his book Priceless Memories.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at the Internet Movie Database
• The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson at TV.com

v • d • e Current late night talk and comedy shows in the United States Broadcast Networks ABC Jimmy Kimmel Live!  · Nightline CBS Late Show with David Letterman  · The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson NBC The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien  · Late Night with Jimmy Fallon  · Last Call with Carson Daly  · Saturday Night Live Cable Networks Comedy Central The Daily Show with Jon Stewart  · The Colbert Report E! Chelsea Lately  · The Soup Fox News Channel Red Eye w/ Greg Gutfeld G4 Web Soup HBO Real Time with Bill Maher Style The :Dish Versus Sports Soup WGN America The Bob & Tom Show