Almost a year ago, UK comedian Simon Amstell made a great American late night debut on The Late Show with David Letterman.
A year later, he’s back at Letterman offering another wonderful introspective stand-up set that also suggests that, no matter what, ego almost always has the upper hand despite getting what you wanted like another spot on Letterman.
(via Deadline)
The very funny Tommy Johnagin has been developing a multi cam sitcom based on his life that he will star in at various networks for awhile.
We’re glad to hear that CBS is going to give Johnagin along with writers Justin Halpern and Patrick Schumacker and executive producer/sitcom maven Bill Lawrence a pilot commitment. Now, let’s all hope that it gets picked up to series so we’ll all actually get to enjoy a Tommy Johnagin TV show.
Carmen Lynch has already notched in two sets at Letterman and, last week, made her way onto The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson with another great stand-up set.
We wouldn’t be surprised at all if she makes all the rounds at late night with a performance like this.
(via Deadline)
While people are clamoring for a standalone HBO GO, CBS CEO Les Moonves has taken note and made serious considerations in offering Showtime direct to consumers online. Nothing has been specifically planned, but it’s definitely a move that should be taken as another sign of the times that the barriers between the Internet and TV are quickly fading away.
Currently, Showtime is home to such comedies as the award winning Episodes, Inside Comedy, and Web Therapy as well as various stand-up specials. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend starring Rachel Bloom is also being made into a pilot at the premium cable network.
Being able to binge watch a lot of those series and more to come online would definitely be a great move for Showtime.
With Sept. 24th, the premiere date of the new season of Key & Peele, just around the corner, Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele are making the rounds on talk shows.
CBS Sunday Morning News did a great segment on them that gets into their motivations behind what they do and how Key & Peele specifically handle race and touchy topics their own very progressive way. Watch it here.
In the world of late night, there are comedians that have mastered doing stand-up in the pinpoint, condensed style of delivering material without seeming pinpoint or condensed that most late night talk shows require. That’s part of the reason that a handful of stand-ups get to do several sets/make several apperances on several different shows.
One of those comedians is Jake Johannsen and you can see his latest appearance from this week amongst dozens over the last few decades here.
Yesterday, the news broke that James Corden will indeed be replacing Craig Ferguson as the host of The Late Late Show.
As you’d expect, Ferguson noted this on last night’s episode of The Late Late Show and gave a nice welcome to the new host as Craig, Geoff Peterson as well as bits as Awkward Pause are getting to go.
(via Entertainment Weekly)
A few months ago, there was a rumor that leaked that one James Corden from the UK would be replacing Craig Ferguson as host of The Late Late Show at CBS. There was only one unnamed source and neither CBS, Ferguson, or Corden would confirm the rumor, so we continued to wait for the official word on CBS’ choice.
Well, as of today, CBS has confirmed that Corden will succeed Ferguson as another host from across the pond of The Late Late Show starting some time after Ferguson leaves in December and heads for his syndicated 7PM show through Tribute Media.
So, 2015’s CBS late night line-up will be The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Late Show with James Corden, which will be probably the most intriguing move in late night in the last few years.
Bonnie McFarlane put up quite the stand up set last night when she returned to the stage at The Late Show with David Letterman. Not only did it blend personal material with big issues of our day like being transgendered, it was damn funny.
(via Entertainment Weekly)
CBS’ The Millers just got a lot more enticing with the addition of guest starring roles for Billy Eichner and Rhys Darby in their upcoming season. Eichner is set to play an ex-husband that has a crush on Will Arnett’s Nathan and Rhys Darby will play a sort of a fantasy novel series author/a George R.R. Martin type, perhaps.
So do be on the look out for that when it comes back Oct. 30th.
Throughout the storied history of David Letterman’s comedy career, Robin Williams has been around for most of it, all the way from The Comedy Store to appearing dozens of times on The Late Show and Letterman appearing on Mork and Mindy.
With Williams passing, Letterman, like all the other late night talk shows, did his own personal, heartfelt tribute to Robin. Watch it here.
(via Deadline)
This week, CBS has been making some good moves in branching their comedy branding out.
In addition to giving Will Arnett’s newly formed production company Electric Ave. a first look deal, they have now made a put pilot commitment to a project from Dan Sterling, a former EP on The Office, brought to them by comedy’s newest power duo, Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The Lego Movie, 21 and 22 Jump Street, Last Man on Earth).
Let’s hope CBS keeps going in this direction this pilot season.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
That’s right, Will Arnett has launched his very own production company Electric Ave. that has an exclusive first look deal at CBS and is already in final negotiations to option a project for development.
Not only is exciting news that Arnett has own production arm, but, if our sources are correct, they’ve got some more exciting stuff up their sleeve.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
Jim Gaffigan’s pilot that was in contention for awhile at CBS has now officially moved to a ten episode order at TV Land for next year and gotten a title, The Gaffigan Show. The show, much like his stand-up, will draw from his experiences of being a husband and father of five.
Reruns of The Gaffigan Show will air on Comedy Central a week after their air on TV Land. This has us curious if CBS and NBC will end up regretting letting go of The Gaffigan Show and Mulaney respectively.
(via The Hollywood Reporter)
Not that it should surprise you, but the upcoming Late Show with Stephen Colbert will stay in NYC at The Ed Sullivan Theater where David Letterman has been for several years taping The Late Show.
With The Tonight Show back in NYC, Conan O’Brien and Jimmy Kimmel will be the only late night shows that tape in LA in 2015. Well, that does all depend on what CBS plans on doing with Craig Ferguson’s slot and where Chelsea Handler does her Netflix show down the line.
That’s right, Tommy Johnagin has been on The Late Show with David Letterman to do stand-up 7 times. That’s becoming a harder and harder feat to accomplish these days given the proliferation of stand-up over the last decade. Last night marked his 7th set and, obviously, there’s a reason why Johnagin keeps getting invited back (hint: he’s damn funny).
Watch his set from this week here.
(via Deadline)
With the announcements of which pilots have been picked up for the next year well behind us, there is still hope for a handful of projects at other networks.
Jim Gaffigan’s pilot might have a chance a TV Land after going through a few rounds at CBS while Jerrod Carmichael is getting another shot at NBC. Also, Rob Lowe and Rob Riggle’s tennis comedy pilot The Pro and legal comedy Sober Companion starring Nick Frost and Justin Long are still being considered at Fox.
We’re glad to hear that all these projects are still in play and will keep our fingers crossed as long as we can in hopes that they get picked up.
(via The Wrap)
The end of Craig Ferguson’s run at The Late Late Show may be the end of The Late Late Show as well.
In CBS’ TCA presentation, CBS entertainment chief Nina Tassler revealed that she’s been toying with the idea of doing something different when David Letterman and Ferguson end their runs at The Late Show and The Late Late Show, respectively.
So far, Stephen Colbert is slated to replace Letterman at The Late Show, which will presumably be called The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. There has been much speculation over what would happen in the 12:30AM slot following Colbert then, but no replacement host has been picked and it might not even be a comedy-oriented program according to Tassler.
Tassler doesn’t make it clear whether that will happen or not, but only details the possibilities, which could further shake up the late night world.
Hannibal Buress has performed on The Late Show with David Letterman before, but he, until last night, had not actually chatted with Letterman on The Late Show.
As suggested, Buress got to sit down with David Letterman and, sans phone like he does on The Eric Andre Show, actually talked pelicans, kickboxing, etc.
Before his big return at Radio CIty Music Hall, Dave Chappelle made a return to TV after years of avoiding the spotlight when he appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman last night.
Of course, Dave and Dave talked about Chappelle’s Show and the circumstances of Dave’s leave of absence. Watch Dave clear things up, sort of, here.
We’re glad to see that David Letterman is having a little more stand up on The Late Show as of late before he leaves CBS in a few months.
We’re also glad that one of those comedians that Letterman’s highlighting is the very funny Joe List. Watch his set here.
CBS Cancels The Arsenio Hall Show
Though it was slated for a second season, The Arsenio Hall Show will be no longer moving forward.
Joining in with The Pete Holmes Show, this will be the second late night talk show to be cancelled this year, on top of Chelsea Handler planning to leave Chelsea Lately this summer.
This leaves whoever is going to replace Craig Ferguson a more intriguing choice than it already is.
In an effort to further his campaign to take over The Late Late Show next year when Craig Ferguson steps down, Norm MacDonald put together a “one-minute audition reel” while on Conan in addition to doing his routinely amazing panel interview with Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter.
There’s no way that CBS can completely ignore this.
CBS Passes on How I Met Your Dad with Greta Gerwig
It seems like most networks are trying to make their version of How I Met Your Mother this season and, surprisingly, the direct spin-off, How I Met Your Dad with Greta Gerwig won’t be one version that will make it to series.
CBS has passed on the show and it is currently being shopped around. It’s possible, but it would be hard to imagine that this wouldn’t get picked up somewhere.
Norm MacDonald Fans Push For #LateLateNormNorm
If you follow Norm MacDonald on Twitter (and you should), you might have noticed last night that there was a flurry of tweets and RTs of the hashtag #LateLateNormNorm (possibly started by Ben Hoffman) in a digital grassroots move to put Norm’s hat in the ring to replace Ferguson.
So far, we haven’t seen anything like that for any of the other names that have been rumored to be in the running for The Late Late Show. At this point, the gig really still could go to a wide range of folks, but it’s definitely fun to imagine Norm MacDonald hosting late night for all the times he was absolutely hysterical as a guest.
Also, that hashtag is pretty catchy.