Fri, August 13, 2004
Late-Night News—10:15 AM
This came as a bit of a surprise: Craig Kilborn has announced that he's leaving The Late, Late Show, no word yet as to why. I can't imagine it's movies – as great as he was in Old School. This removes one from the stable of slim-but-possible possibilities for replacing Letterman when he finally steps down.
Also, for those of you who enjoyed the Homestar Runner video for "Experimental Film" (I think there may only be one), you have a chance to see John & John perform the song tonight on Conan. Be there!
Brandon — Fri, 8/13/04 3:05pm
I'm not a fan of Kilborn (I liked him on SportsCenter, and have liked him less and less with each subsequent career stop), so to me this is no big loss. I would imagine though, since Worldwide Pants owns the rights to that 12:30 slot, that Letterman & Co. may now take this opportunity to carefully select and groom a successor to Dave. I'm excited to see what they'll do.
"michwagn" — Sat, 8/14/04 9:37am
I thought Kilby was ok on CBS, I'd characterize his stint as steady, but not awe-inspiring. The first year I thought was pretty good, innovative even, and then it is just more of the same every night. I loved him on Sportscenter, and I loved the "Get well, Keith" he gave at the end of his "Sportscenter: Old School" thing on Sunday night. But I am glad he won't be the successor to Dave. Hell, maybe Dave told him he wouldn't so Craiggers decided to get out now.
I still think the coolest, boldest choice would be Jerry Seinfeld, if he'd agree to do it. I think he'd be incredibly good at it. But I could certainly see Jerry as saying, "Look, I made 22 million a year working way less than I would doing a show every night with no summer hiatus. What would I take 12-15 million for a nightly show?"
I wonder if Comedy Central saw the writing on the wall and quickly locked up their Dave?
I hope they find somebody really good - they could go in a variety of ways...would they choose to make it more of a "Nightline" type show as Koppel's getting older? Or more of a Snyder-esque 'fire up the simultinis and watch the pictures fly through the air' kind of thing? Or young, innovative comedy? Or the Iron Chef?