The host of the "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" called in to help promote his standup performance in January in Kansas City. He said it's the first time he's talked to a media type person since the Writers Guild of America went on strike two months ago. Naturally, I wanted to know what he's planning to do when his employer, David Letterman, returns to work in January — and how a guy who sounds like he's talking off the top of his head will function without writers. I mean, will anybody notice?
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Ferguson, who is playing the Uptown Theater Jan. 4, claimed not to know too much about his immediate future in late night TV. "I'm just a vulgar lounge entertainer," he protested. "I really don't know. I've got a feeling I'm going back in January like everyone else."
Of course, all he had to do was read Variety to know that. It reported Tuesday that the future of both Worldwide Pants-owned shows was being hashed out on the East Coast by Worldwide Pants exec (and WGA-East member) Rob Burnett.
"If Dave's going back, then I'm going back," said Ferguson. "Dave's my boss, I don't know if you know that. The day Dave goes back is the day I go back."
Although the Letterman camp remains adamant that they "deserve" to go back with a full complement of writers at both shows — an argument that becomes less persuasive to me the more times I hear Burnett make it — it's looking more and more likely that all network late-night shows will be back on the air Jan. 2, writers or no writers.
Here's the funny thing about the "Late Late Show": its distinction is having a monologue that sounds unscripted. After doing his show for a while, Ferguson and his producer, famed host whisperer and onetime Carson producer Peter Lassally, decided to drop the setup-punchline bit and have Ferguson go back to what he's always done best — conversing, more or less, with his audience, throwing things out there based on an outline. "It freed up the whole show," said Ferguson. "It became the most relaxing and enjoyable hour of the day." And it shows.
Of course, it takes writers to write an outline, and some days, Ferguson said, they do a lot more than that. "If it's something that I'm extermely opinionated on, then basically I put it together and the writers punch it up. If I've got nothing to say we sit in the room and spitball something and they put it together."
So he will miss his writers, then.
"I haven't done (the show) without talking to some guys beforehand, so your guess is as good as mine. I'm a member of WGA. And if we are going back, I'm not going to work as a writer. I'll host the show but I won't write for it. I'll have to speak without thinking, which actually, I have two failed marriages, so I think everybody knows I can do. I'll ramble."
One thing that's not subject to change: If the show is in production, he'll tape two shows on Thursday and do his Kansas City gig on Friday. That was the plan when the Uptown booked him. As to the content of his live show, Ferguson promises, "It would give the sponsors and the FCC nightmares."
