Late-Night Landscape
As Seth Meyers launches his version of Late Night on NBC, well-wishers have been sending messages of support, including his new time-slot competitor, Craig Ferguson. On Monday, Craig tweeted:

Good luck and God speed to the lovely @sethmeyers , welcome to the dysfunctional family

The Hollywood Reporter has a round of up of some of the best tweets.

Echoes of Austin
Earlier this month, Craig and opening act Josh Robert Thompson appeared live on stage in Austin, Texas before a sold-out crowd. Among those offering reviews of the show is the student publication of St. Edwards University.

School and Odd Jobs
In this monologue from 2005, Craig is tingling with anticipation about school and odd jobs.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

Paper Doll
Craig Ferguson has appeared in many guises and forms over the years, but this may be the first time he will appear as a paper doll. The RSA’s @IKnowJoJo is in the process of compiling the episodes of her web comic Craigy Who and Mr. Timey Pants, into a printed comic book. As part of that project, she is adding a special bonus: Craig in paper doll form. She’s planning a kickstarter campaign to fund printing of the book, and we’ll keep you informed about when it gets started.

Spaced Out
In the latest installment of his podcast, Josh Robert Thompson talks about the double-edged sword of finally getting a parking space at CBS Television City after three years working on The Late Late Show, only to find other people parked in it nearly every day.

Going Batty
In this monologue from 2005, Craig fights through the flu and rants about crazy bats.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

Putting Humor on the Map
One of our favorite parts of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is the chance to learn a bit of geography. Last week’s map showing Vienna in the middle of Europe was another great example. It featured some of the usual references, labeling England as “wankers,” Scotland as “clever handsome land” and the Balkans as “places to skip on vacation.” And also featured some great wordplay, such as calling the Ukraine “Richland” to counter “Po-land” to the north, calling Slovakia “Thirsty” to contrast nearby “Hungary,” and re-naming Bulgaria as “Bulge Area.” Kudos to the writers and graphic artists who put the maps together. It represents some clever thinking and a lot of work for something that appears on the show for only a matter of seconds. “Sicily Spacek” would be proud.

Two Shows, One Actor
It’s not uncommon for producers to create American remakes of British shows (although one wonders why it’s necessary… Americans can deal with British accents and, dare we say it, many cultural references), but it’s unusual when the American remake features the same actor in the lead role. When the American remake of Broadchurch, called Gracepoint, comes out on Fox this fall, it will star David Tennant, of Doctor Who fame. Tennant spoke with Entertainment Weekly about the challenges of recreating his character.

Party Time
In this monologue from 2005, Craig talks about swanky parties.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

Craig on the Tweety
Craig Ferguson is not a frequent tweeter by most measures, but most of his timely and funny tweets get favorited and re-tweeted by hundreds of people and draw quick responses from fans. He currently ranks as the 542nd most-followed Twitter user in the world, with 1.8 million followers. He gains an average of 400 followers a day and is expected to crack the two million-follower mark in 2015.

McHale Gets WH Gig
Frequent LLS guest, actor, comedian and tv host Joel McHale has been tapped to speak at the White House Correspondents Dinner on May 3rd. As tvline.com reports, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Jay Leno have performed at the event in the past. Craig was the featured speaker at the dinner in 2008.

Power Outage
In this monologue from 2005, Craig talked about a power outage in Los Angeles.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

Late-Night Future
Each time a late-night host gets a new gig, talk always begins to swirl about who will be the next to take over a show when the current host retires. As things start to look relatively stable with Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers settling into their new roles on NBC and Arsenio Hall making his return to the time period, attention has once again swung to the dean of late-night hosts, David Letterman, whose current contract expires in the summer of 2015. While Letterman has given few signals about retiring, the 66 year-old has outlasted Johnny Carson‘s 30-year tenure as a late-night host. While Craig Ferguson‘s name is often mentioned as a possible, if not likely, successor to his boss, he has long downplayed the possibility and has insisted that the 11:30 time slot is not a specific goal. But that doesn’t stop the speculation, including the latest story from NBC News, which wonders aloud about a wide range of possible replacements, including Craig, whose last couple of contract extensions have been timed to match Letterman’s. We probably won’t find out anything until next year, and even then it’s certainly possible that Letterman could extend his run for another couple of years or longer. All we can do is wait and see.

He Stays Grounded
Craig got more praise this week for his appearance on the CBS daytime show The Talk, from the website Nerdles.com, which called him a “grounded and simple man.” Grounded, perhaps, but far from simple, we would argue.

Housing
In this two-part monologue from 2006, Craig talks about places he’s lived.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

More Glasgow Rock
As a Scottish musician turned American talk show host, Craig Ferguson has been known to give a Glasgow-based band a break. Sometimes they get a one-time appearance, or as he did in the spring of 2012 with The Imagineers, they get a chance to play several nights in a row. Next week, he’ll be doing the same for the band Roddy Hart and The Lonesome Fire. As The Hollywood Reporter and the UK’s Daily Record are reporting, after enjoying their performance on Monday night, Craig has invited the band to play each night next week, February 24th through the 28th.

Praise For Craig
The website GeeksWhoDrink.com has nice things to say about Craig in a spirited article about how Johnny Carson‘s successors aren’t living up to the standards he set.

Bad Movies
In this two-part monologue from 2005, Craig rants about bad movies and porn.

Video courtesy: FrankGerbertson

Craig on ‘The Talk’
Craig Ferguson appeared on the CBS daytime show The Talk on Wednesday, to talk about the release this week of the audiobook version of his novel Between The Bridge And The River. He entered to a standing ovation of thunderous applause. He talked about being involved in modern dance in New York, changing diapers, doing stand up comedy, Valentine’s Day,

On a side note, we were rather pleased that the show’s website linked to ours for Craig’s upcoming Live Comedy Tour dates.

Hear Craig Read His Novel
You can now order the audiobook version of Craig’s novel Between The Bridge And The River as a sound file for your immediate listening pleasure. It’s on Amazon, Audible.com and iTunes.


Robot Arrested
The RSA’s @HoboRobot spotted a story on Gizmodo.com about what could have been the first case of a robot being arrested back in 1982. That was a bit before Geoff Peterson was on the scene.

Craig Interviewed
In this clip from Wednesday’s episode of The Talk, Craig talks about his audiobook. To see the full interview, visit the show’s website. Craig’s two-part interview begins at around 21 minutes into the show and runs until about 31 minutes in.

Video courtesy: CBS