Stanley Bing, the nom de guerre of CBS News chief flack Gil Schwartz, wrote another one of his throwaway books recently, Executricks: Or How to Retire While You’re Still Working, and got himself booked on Wednesday’s The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson to promote it. Ferguson asked Bing how, exactly, he had time to write the book while still holding down an executive gig at CBS, to which he responded: “I practice some of the tricks in the book.” Those who might think he’s just kidding around would be sorely mistaken. CONTINUED »
Craig Ferguson, truly the most underrated talk show host on television, will release a book of memoirs in 2009 entitled American on Purpose. In it, Ferguson will recount his sundry jobs along the years, his voyage from Scotland musician to American host and his various battles with drug and alcohol addiction. It sounds too heartwarming for us, but good for him.
In its rush to lock Conan O’Brien into a long-termdeal, even if that meant prematurely ousting Jay Leno, NBC may have overlooked one itsy bitsy piece of information: The host of CBS’ Late Late Show may be a more in-demand commodity. For the first time ever, the show’s host Craig Ferguson beat Conan in the ratings game. Last week he took four out of the five nights, with 1.88 million viewers to Conan’s 1.77 million. Naturally, NBC would like you, and its advertisers, to remember that its late night host won the prized 18-49 demographic.
Uber-gay Project Runway winner Christian Siriano sat down with Craig Ferguson yesterday. And, while we can’t say for sure, we’d like to think that our pleas helped fuel his disavowal of “fierce,” which threatened to undo our nation.
Not one to be without a catch phrase - or, rather, word - Siriano announced to the world that he’ll now use the word “expired,” as in “fierce is expired”.
ALIENS FOR HUMANS Recent American citizen Craig Ferguson will host the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Considering his new immigration status, his speech probably won’t be as harsh as Stephen Colbert’s from two years ago. Too bad, because the resulting fall out was kind of funny. [Examiner]
GUESS WHO’S AN AMERICAN CITIZEN NOW Craig Ferguson, the Scottish host of the Late Late Show, passed his American citizenship test. He and fellow CBS late night host David Letterman reached a separate agreement with the WGA, so he’s not crossing the picket line to do his show. This guy respects authority. [AP]
So unless you were living in a shoe for the past eight weeks, you know that the writers strike has more or less destroyed American entertainment as we know it.
But last night, no longer able to sponsor their cast and crew with their own paychecks, David Letterman, Craig Ferguson, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien returned. Only Letterman and Ferguson had the help of their writers; only Leno and Ferguson had shaved recently.
Without people on staff to be funny, Leno and O’Brien resorted to self-depreciating jokes about how unfunny they are. To kill time, O’Brien spun his wedding ring on his desk for 36 seconds. Yeah, these two shouldn’t have a problem as the strike continues.
After the jump, the first WGA approved scripted television in eight weeks from The Late Show. Since the clip is from YouTube, neither the writers nor the networks are profiting from this online material. How’s that for a compromise? CONTINUED »
STEWART/COLBERT ‘08 Joining Conan, Leno, Letterman, Ferguson and trail blazer, Carson Daly, Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert will return with new shows, produced without writers, starting January 7. [NYT]
Forget About This Strike Jimmy Kimmel will return live starting January 2 joining Leno and Conan and probably Dave Letterman and Craig Ferguson. Happy New Year, networks! Does this mean Carson Daly was cutting edge? [USAT]
Who would have guessed that a production company with a ridiculous name like World Wide Pants would be in such a plum position?
But since World Wide Pants, not CBS, owns The Late Show With David Letterman and The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, both shows are probably going to return with new episodes in January through an interim agreement brokered with the Writers Guild of America. CONTINUED »
Thing are looking good for insomniacs. NBC’s Conan O’Brien and Jay Leno are probably going to return to late night in early January, even if the WGA strike doesn’t get resolved, which it won’t. There’s talk of a joint picket crossing with CBS’s David Letterman and Craig Ferguson. The competing networks have finally found a common enemy: The Struggling writer. [Variety]
Last night’s television, according to Salon’s The Fix:
David Letterman (CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Halle Berry, Jesse James, Top Ten with Harold Perrineau (repeat)
Jay Leno (NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT): Jack Black, the “Car-Parazzi kids”, Hard-Fi (repeat)
Conan O’Brien (NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Reese Witherspoon, Jon Favreau, Kevin Brennan (repeat)
Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Laurence Fishburne, Illeana Douglas, Jack’s Mannequin
Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT): Jaime Pressly, Xzibit, the Streets (repeat)
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT): Juliet Eilperin (repeat)
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Bart Ehrman (repeat)
That is, Craig Ferguson: The only asshole in late night that left out the holiday clause.
The Fix [Salon]
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