Late night talk show guests: March 8-14

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, March 8, 2010 @ 3:49pm

Sorry about missing last week. I know it seems like a habit of one week on, one week off, but I have a good excuse. I was in Mexico for a good friend's wedding, and my resort in Mexico didn't have the Wi-Fi in the rooms that I thought it did. So it actually had nothing to do with the re-launch of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and me trying to avoid the hype (though I guess it was a nice side effect to go along with the beautiful weather).

And just to prove how much I love all of you, I am posting the listings this week, despite the fact that I'm in Las Vegas after covering the Academy Awards in L.A. the past few days. Despite being in Sin City, I'm still on the internet giving you a list of what to watch this week in late night. So... am I forgiven?

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Late night talk show guests: February 22-28

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, February 22, 2010 @ 6:39am

Last week, most shows were in either repeats or pre-empted because of the Olympics, but this week almost every one is back on with new episodes. Not very much interesting actually happened over the last couple weeks since I last posted. Not that I want to keep going on about Conan O'Brien, but the only real news coming out in the last little while was rumblings that Conan might use his NBC-mandated time off of television to take his show on the road and perform in theatres across North America (and possible the world). That would certainly be a clever way to get around the contract stipulations where NBC hoped to kill some of Conan's buzz by keeping him off the air until September. We'll of course keep you updated on any developments.

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Late night talk show guests: February 8-14

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, February 8, 2010 @ 10:08pm

So apparently I needed a week off after Conan left the air (repeats don't count!) before talking about late night television again. And it's true, the winner of our Best Overall Late Night Show of 2009 award is still on the air in repeats for one more week before Vancouver Olympics coverage kicks in -- though you wouldn't know it from visiting NBC's website. Despite still airing Conan's Tonight Show on their network for another week, as of last Friday, they've eliminated all mention of Conan O'Brien from their web properties -- no videos, no bios, no anything. Every section or dedicated site that linked to something Conan-related -- including the "Twitter Tracker" and "Conando" sites, blogs, videos on NBC.com and Hulu.com -- have been erased from their servers (and not just his Tonight Show stuff, as all his old Late Night video archives are gonzo, too). They even took down a great Tonight Show history website they had set up, going over all the great moments from Steve Allen and Jack Paar, through Johnny Carson's 30 years and Jay's first run as host, because it mentioned Conan O'Brien. It's all a bit odd.

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Late night talk show guests: January 25-31

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, January 26, 2010 @ 12:37am

I'll try not to write too much about Conan, since he's pretty much dominated this spot the last 2 weeks, but I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about his final Tonight Show just a little bit. Even if you're not a fan of his style of writing and performing, you have to admit (okay, maybe not everyone, but most do) that his final show was a spectacular hour of television. From top-notch guests (Tom Hanks, Neil Young) to special surprises (Steve Carell giving an "NBC exit interview"; Will Ferrell being joined by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, Beck, Ben Harper, the Tonight Show Band, and Conan himself for a rockin' rendition of "Freebird"), it was an hour of comedy and variety that anyone would be proud to end their run with.

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Late night talk show guests: January 18-24 (plus, "I'm with CoCo")

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 18, 2010 @ 11:02pm

Well folks, it looks like we're gearing up for the final week ever of The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. Launched less than 8 months ago on June 1, 2009 (check out our interview with Conan staffer Aaron Bleyaert posted that day), the show will most likely air its last original episode with Conan O'Brien as host this Friday, January 22, 2010. After the Winter Olympics break (where NBC will be losing $200 million by airing the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games for 2 weeks), Jay Leno will return to once again host the show that bore his name from 1992-2009.

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Conan O'Brien officially responds to NBC's late-night plans

Posted by Paul Little | Tuesday, January 12, 2010 @ 7:48pm

Yes, we follow late night television a lot here on ShowbizMonkeys.com. But because of that, we felt we had to keep you informed on the latest development in the NBC/Conan/Leno situation -- that being an official statement from Conan O'Brien rejecting NBC's offer to move The Tonight Show to 12:05am (ET).

Instead of rambling on with paragraphs of even more commentary to go along with my post yesterday, I'll just leave you with Conan's statement and say that I applaud both his class, and his respect for the late night institution that Johnny Carson immortalized. It may "only" be television, but TV and comedy specifically are important to a lot of people for very valid reasons.

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Late night talk show guests: January 11-17 (plus a breakdown of the big mess at NBC!)

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 11, 2010 @ 6:23pm

Boy oh boy, do we have things to talk about! This past week has brought late night TV into the top headlines, as NBC is looking to shake things up once again by moving Jay Leno back into his old post-news slot, potentially screwing over Conan O'Brien in the process. My assessment isn't emotionless, and it isn't without bias, but it is based on nearly 20 years of devoted late night television viewing, and a pretty good handle on TV as a whole. This is going to be long, so if you don't have the time, just skip ahead to the guest listings down below.

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The 2009 Late Night Television Awards

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 8:00pm

Aren't you excited? A totally trivial list of the top 3 shows/hosts in 5 different categories, picking from a genre of no more than a dozen total shows. So while 2009 was the year that talk shows seemed to dominate the airwaves (Really? 3.5 hours of talk every night on NBC? Really!?), it's still a pretty limited game, especially in late night.

Since I do watch almost every night of almost every show on late night television, it seems, I like to think I'm a bit of an authority on the work of comedic talk shows. So who better to come up with a list (that holds little clout) of what was the best of the decade's final year?

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Late night guest line-ups: January 4-10

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, January 4, 2010 @ 6:37pm

Not only are almost all the late night shows back from the holiday hiatus tonight, but the start of the new year also means ShowbizMonkeys.com is looking back at both the 00s and 2009 itself. We begin that look back tonight, as I present our 2009 Late Night Awards!!!!!

Okay, so they're not that exciting... but here they are anyway. Read the list. Enjoy it. Whisper sweet nothings into its ear.

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Late night guest line-ups: December 14-18

Posted by Paul Little | Monday, December 14, 2009 @ 6:19pm

I don't have very much time to write a lot before posting this week's late night talk shows listings. It's my birthday today (Yay! I'm not dead for another year!) and I'm heading out to dinner right away, but I wanted to get these posted BEFORE the first shows of the evening start airing for once.

This week is dominated by Avatar and Sherlock Holmes-related guests (the 2 biggest holiday movies come out this Wednesday and Christmas Day, respectively), but there are also some other big events and cool guests to check out on late night this week.

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