The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn

Can Late Late' Bloomer and ex-Daily Show host Craig Kilborn replace Tom Snyder? (Tom who?) Improve CBS' late-night numbers? No doubt. Challenge Conan's ratings? That is the question.

Panic on the set of The Late Late Show: Craig Kilborn is having a bad hair day. And just three weeks before his much-hyped replacement of former host Tom Snyder, the notoriously meticulous Kilborn is not suffering imperfection (grooming or otherwise) gladly--even during a rehearsal. Encouraging words are offered; the network is thrilled with what it's seen so far. "I don't care what they think," mutters Kilborn, "it's what I think. I don't want to wing this."

A rather animated exchange for the usually unflappable Kilborn, 36, who cut his teeth anchoring two of cable's snarkiest talkers: ESPN's SportsCenter and Comedy Central's The Daily Show. But for all the loose, wry repartee on camera, the 6'5" blue-eyed blond is wrapped tighter than a mummy when he's off. "Craig is a complicated guy," says Daily Show co-creator Madeleine Smithberg. "I used to call him a TV savant. It's almost as if he comes to life on camera. Everything else is in the shadow of his TV persona."

Indeed, delivering a smarmy version of "Looks Like We Made It" by the piano on the show's new pseudo-den set (complete with functional bar--"We'll break some FCC rules," Kilborn promises), he visibly relaxes; he's a Mister Rogers for the after-dark crowd, having a Scotch and cracking wise about the neighborhood.

The irreverent Kilborn may seem an odd choice for the determinedly square Eye network ("He's hipper than CBS," admits its TV CEO Leslie Moonves), but really, what's the net got to lose? For four seasons now, its late-night ratings have trailed behind NBC's. Kilborn is certainly a better fit with lead-in David Letterman than the leaden Snyder was. And Late Night With Conan O'Brien proves there's a demographic (young men 18 to 34) eager to stay up late with a sarcastic white guy. The question is, will any of them be eager to flip? Kilborn diplomatically addresses the upcoming battle: "Conan's got a five-year start," he reasons. Kilborn adds that he'll be able to deliver "as long as expectations are low."

If Kilborn's cautious, you can't blame him. He's reticent by nature; a true Midwestern WASP, brought up in Hastings, Minn., he guards his past, revealing little beyond a lifelong desire to be a talk-show host (as a kid, he'd record monologues that his insurance agent dad would critique) and a lackluster basketball career at Montana State University ("I was a slow white player, and I still am," he says). But he's also been burned by the press, not to mention by his own occasional candor. He recently admitted to having an 11-year-old son--but only after a tabloid threatened to break the news first. And he spent most of '98 apologizing for a crack he made in Esquire about Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead (that she'd Monica Lewinsky him if he asked). The remark got Kilborn suspended; Winstead quit. "I made a mistake," he says. "It was a bad joke--and there will be plenty more of those when the show starts."

Clearly, there are still hard feelings. "The Daily Show was obviously a great platform," he says, "but from day one I wanted to leave." He frequently bickered with the show's writers over his role, pretty much limited to making fun of the day's headlines. And he continues to fume over accusations that he didn't write much of his material, though he won't discuss it: "It's almost gossipy. And who the hell cares? Let my work speak for itself." Or listen to Rob Burnett, CEO of Worldwide Pants, producer of Late Late: "We knew we were getting someone very comfortable on camera. What we didn't expect was a guy with a million ideas."

What's certainly true is that The Daily Show has suffered since his departure. Despite the auspicious first-week ratings of his successor, Jon Stewart, Kilborn attracted a younger, more male audience. If he can do the same for Late Late, plenty of CBS execs will be willing to get down on their knees and, uh, thank him.

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."

Craig Kilborn always puts a smile on my face when I'm up late enough to see him. If you find yourself up late, I highly recommend watching this show. Unlike late night show hosts on other networks, Craig Kilborn has a personality and is easy to relate to. He looks and talks like someone I would actually know in everyday life. One of the best parts of the show is a skit called "What Up?". They don't do it every night but I wish they did. I've also discovered some good musical groups that have made guest appearances on the show. If you find Conan as hideous and unimaginative as I do, check out Craig Kilbourn for a refreshing change of pace.

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.

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.