The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn

When I was about eight years old, I used to tune in to Letterman or Leno from time to time. While their juvenile antics amused me when I was young, and on rare occasion still do to some extent-- I grew weary of their repetitive, unfunny jokes and stupid skits. In my mid-teens, I started watching Conan. I thought, this guy is succeeding where the others have failed. But I also tired of Conan, and rather quickly, as I found his range as a comedian quite miniscule and his jokes monotonously shallow. I still tuned in occasionally, but not more than a few times a year, because that seemed to be the only way late shows could stay funny and fresh to me.

And then, about a year ago, my friend started nagging me to watch Craig Kilborn. I kept forgetting about it, and so he started taping episodes and making me watch them whenever I was over at his house. At first, though I noted Kilborn to be a skilled comedian with a very diverse portfolio of perfectly executed facial expressions, I didn't understand a lot of his jokes. This is because he has built his show upon a foundation of inside jokes that are sometimes rephrased and repeated a number of times within any given week. As a new viewer, I was unfamiliar with his inside jokes. But now, I feel they are one of the best parts of his show, because for an inside joke to be funny-- the audience has to KNOW what he is talking about. It makes you feel like a part of the show.

I treasure parts of Kilborn's show, such as In The News, Five Questions, and Yambo. Not only are these segments often the highlight of Craig Kilborn, they (more often than not) dwarf the competition in terms of wit, humor, and intelligence.

But the thing that makes The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn succeed more than anything else is Craig Kilborn. He has a style of comedy that is very self-referential, and he puts on the act of a vain man who thinks he is more important than he really is. He'll act like he thinks he's a big star, while in reality, he's really making fun of himself.

You have to hand it to him. This man with no announcer and no band has single-handedly created the greatest late-night talk show of our time.

If you don't like Craig Kilborn, then try watching it for a couple of weeks straight. If you're not converted by the end of those two weeks, then you're simply not American.

Well, I've finished watching Craiggers' last episode. I used to be an avid watcher of his program when he first aired in 1999- mainly due to the fact that I was a fan of his work on The Daily Show and also of The Late Late Show's previous host, Tom Snyder (so the match-up of timeslot and host at that point was seemingly perfect for me.) As time went on, as fewer and fewer a-list actors appeared on the show, I began flipping over to Conan to see some of his irreverent comedy. However, if for some reason Conan wasn't delivering the goods, the TV went straight back to Kilby.

Craig Kilborn and his writers had a certain unique style when it came to presenting the show that usually engaged the viewers in a more intimate give-and-take with the show. It never tried to be the biggest show in its slot- it made do with the audience who stuck with him and who weren't too thrilled by Triumph the insult comic dog, or later by Jimmy Kimmel's brand of comedy. It was low-key, moderately higher-class humour than his competitors. It was late night comedy at its simplest- no sidekicks, no house band. And I gotta admit that the show did have one of the most comfortable-looking sets.

The show followed a generally regular pattern:

First, there is Craig's monologue. While the monologue was usually lukewarm at best for delivering the laughs (mainly due to Kilborn's horrible timing and rhythm of presenting punchlines), his "desk chat" sketches like A Moment for Us and the 90-second-zoom were always very kitchy and enjoyable. The "In the News" segment gave viewers a micro-version of his Daily Show routine, which were usually hilarious.

Then the guests arrived after the commercial break. Now, Kilborn's interviewing skills seem to have deteriorated after the Daily Show, because it always seems that he is not interested about who he's interviewing with, and subconsciously conveys that not only to the interviewee, but more importantly the audience. That, unfortunately, gives people the impression that Craig is some sort of jerk at times. However, one of the key jewels in the show's 5 year history has to be the 5 Questions game he plays almost every night with one of his guests. I consider it fascinating how some of his guests react. Some play along (like Sir Ian MacKellen's dramatic reading of tire changing instructions). Others seem non-chalant and don't really care how well they do- they just want to get out of the studio so that they can go on to the next PR gig.

All in all, though, the show somehow exuded a sense of nonchalantness to the whole Late Night show idea- it did whatever it wanted to do and had the most fun in doing so. And in that sort of attitude is where it managed to find its niche. People considered that sort of devil-may-care look at its place in the television listings as cool, while others may have seen it as careless.

However it was, it's all over now. Craig has decided to pack up and try out something new- and at a time when he was still somewhat strong in the ratings. Maybe next time he'll have some more decent writers back up his next endeavour. Maybe he'll just disappear into obscurity- where people won't even remember that his show was on the air at all. Whatever it may be, I wish him the best. His show was indeed an interesting alternative to the normal method of delivering a late night television program, and there won't be another show like it. And I, for one and probably only one, will miss that. I'm glad, though, that Craig ended his last show doing what he loves- and that is to dance, dance, dance.

CBS and Worldwide Pants now have the arduous task of finding out what's next for this little show after Letterman. Will it be the return of the one-on-one interview in the style of Snyder? Will it be more irreverent in order to get Conan's audience? Will it be something completely different that no one has seen before? Who knows (at the time of this writing)? All I know is that it has to be good in order to retain the Kilborn audience at the least. Best of luck to them.

This show got off to a faltering start, but now, after close to two years on the air, I daresay "Craiggers" is developing something of a loyal following. His 12:30 counterpart, Conan O'Brien, probably possesses a greater wit, but the smarmy, irreverent Kilborn has harnessed that particular undefinable quality that makes for a funny late-night talk show. Mixing David Letterman's "ironic detachment" with deliberately lowbrow gags, quirky features like "5 Questions", "Yambo" and "In the News" (a carryover from the host's tenure with 'The Daily Show'), The Late Late Show has become quite funny and certain appeals to the 18-35 demographic... you'll be chagrined when you find yourself laughing at "The Ewok Guy" and goofs like "Craig Says The Wrong Thing To The Fish and Game Warden."

The Kilborn show was funny, topical, and had ironic class. I miss it a lot. Neither Ferguson or Conan are as good. Also, this was one of the few shows that captured a little bit of 80s nostalgia from someone of the "right" age. Mostly people who came of age in the 80s are skipped over, the media marketing went right from the baby boomers to generation Y and Z. Face it folks, gen x is in their 40s and we didn't even get a t-shirt.

Maybe, it's misplaced, but I kind of felt like this was "our" show and that there will never be another. Look at all those great early 80s bands he brought back-- and he understood them. I hope we get a DVD collection of the Kilborn show with some of his Daily Show material thrown in, too.

This is show is a one-trick pony and the one trick isn't very funny. This show is nothing more than Craig Kilborn using his smarmy frat boy charm for all that it is worth (which isn't alot). He ripped off "In the News" and "5 Questions" from his Daily Show days, proving that he is incapable of creating any new gimmicks to get us to laugh. If you truly want to be entertained late at night, watch the Daily Show (Jon Stewart has taken that show to incredible heights) and follow it up an hour later with Conan.