I was going to wait 'til CBS posted the video of Craig Ferguson's chat with Stephen Fry to link you to it…but a prominent Ferguson fan (prominent enough that he's "followed" on Twitter by Mr. Ferguson's Twitter account) has posted the whole thing in chapters to YouTube. So here's an embed of the opening monologue and then if it intrigues you, you can find your own way to the rest of it.
A couple of comments about the monologue. Ferguson makes the odd point that the studio from which they do his show isn't really large enough for an audience. That's true. One of the things that people don't seem to notice about his Late Late Show is that it's a successful example of something all the networks have been aiming at for some time, which is to drastically reduce the cost of programming. (Mr. Leno's 10 PM show would be the most notable example of an unsuccessful attempt.) Craig's show is very cheap — no band, small writing staff, little in the way of sketches or production values, etc. His long-time competition on NBC, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, was a show that cost two or three times — someone told me five — what the Ferguson program costs to produce, and Jimmy Fallon is only a little cheaper. Someone at CBS and/or David Letterman's company made the decision that they were not going to spend a lot of money on the show that followed Dave. They haven't and it seems to be paying off big for them.
Anyway, I think it was odd that Ferguson made it sound like his show had to be done from that small studio. In the same way, he always complains about the bad lighting on his show like there's no way to change it. He could be in a bigger studio with better lighting. CBS has such things. The folks above him have merely decided not to spend the money.
Also odd was that he said his show's had no promotion and that there are "no bus ads for Craigy, there's no billboards." Uh, yes, there are. I've seen plenty of both in my neighborhood…and I live within walking distance of where Mr. Ferguson tapes so he drives to work past them. Maybe there aren't any if you get more than a few miles from his studio but they do exist. (Back when Pat Sajak did his late night show there, it was said his contract required billboards with his likeness on them in locations where he was likely to drive. There was a huge one right across the street from CBS. More recently, though not at the moment, that billboard had a huge picture of Bill Maher…who does his HBO show from CBS. I think CBS bought it back during the Sajak days and now it always shows someone who's working at Television City in Hollywood. I'm not sure but I believe Mr. Ferguson's Scottish face was on it for a while.)
Anyway, here's Craig. I haven't gotten around to calling for the ratings to see if they dipped. But either way, I hope he does more broadcasts like this. Thanks to Shmuel Ross for letting me know this was up…
