Hallelujah! Sony Pitching New Craig Ferguson Late-Night Show

My paternal grandparents were not the “early bird special” kind of older people. They were both night owls. Whenever I was lucky enough to stay with them, they would let me stay up and watch “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.” From around the age of nine, I was hooked.

I was also spoiled.

Carson retired in 1992 and the late-night landscape was never quite the same. Jay Leno kept the ratings for NBC, while David Letterman provided some good entertainment over on CBS for several years, but the glory days of late-night were on their way out of the door.

Not all was lost just yet. When Conan O’Brien took over for Letterman at NBC, he was an unmitigated disaster. He was a writer, not a performer. Road comics would watch him after our weeknight shows just so we could mock him. Luckily for Conan, Lorne Michaels loved him, so he was able to hang onto the job for the many years it took him to learn how to become good on camera.

In 2005, Craig Ferguson began hosting “The Late, Late Show,” which had previously been hosted by Tom Snyder and Craig Kilborn. It was must see TV for night owls and insomniacs. For 14 years, Ferguson kept late-night television goofy. He was even weirder than Conan.

Ferguson had no band. His sidekick was a gay robot skeleton. And, most importantly, he always seemed to be having fun.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch his show a lot when it was on the air. I was busy being a single dad in Los Angeles and traveling a lot then. As regular readers of my Morning Briefing know, I have now become a devout watcher of Ferguson clips on YouTube. I frequently lament the fact that late-night fun has largely been replaced by political whining that’s done just to get applause for woke talking points.

Greg Gutfeld has been helping to save the genre from leftist lunacy (and whatever the hell it is that James Corden does), but the wee hours could use a heavy dose of madcap antics. It might just get them from Craig Ferguson.

Deadline:

Sony Pictures Television is plotting a return to the syndicated talk show arena with a half-hour late-night strip hosted by Craig Ferguson. Produced by Whisper North, a division of SPT-backed production company Whisper, Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson shot a pilot in the UK earlier this month and is being taken out to potential buyers by distributor SPT this week in Los Angeles.

Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson, which also marks the comedian’s return to late-night since leaving CBS’ The Late Late Show in 2014, will feature Ferguson and his friends as they “review the shocking, surprising and hilarious moments of the week’s shows.”

It’s a relief that he’s not merely rebooting his old show. Late-night television is not only in need of new blood (even if it’s old), it could also use some new ideas.

We won’t have to worry about being beat over the head with a political agenda from Ferguson. He’s been known for years to lean libertarian/conservative, but he didn’t do politics on “The Late Late Show.” It was all just about him and the guests having a good time.

More of that, please.

I’ll leave you with a few minutes of Ferguson having fun with his sidekick, Geoff Peterson (voiced by Josh Robert Thompson).