TV

Late Night With Conan O’Brien, Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson

by Craig D. Lindsey

Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
B+
Mon.-Fri., 12:35am.
CBS

Are you a Conan person or a Craig person?

It seems the question of which talk-show host you cap off your nights with has been popping up a lot bit lately. And it seems that more people have been joining Team Ferguson.

On the first week of last month, the mischievous Scot, who was just seen making our future ex-president giggle at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, beat that pompadoured Irishman in the ratings for the first time in his three-and-a-half-year stint as CBS’ late-night gabber.

It’s easy to see how someone like Ferguson could win over American insomniacs. As history has shown, we love foreign goofballs. And Ferguson, with his Scottish brogue, arsenal of sound effects and pathological cheekiness, is the kind of lovable scamp we welcome with open arms. But Ferguson can sometimes be a bit too cheeky.

Thankfully, he’s also a refreshingly off-the-cuff interviewer. Watch as he literally throws all caution to the wind (his trademark move is tossing the card of publicist-approved questions off his desk) and engages his guests in the sort of conversations you normally have with your friends at that time of night.

But even with that working in his favor, my loyalties lie with O’Brien and Late Night, still the best smart/dumb time on television. The ferociously manic O’Brien may not possess the laid-back spontaneity Ferguson usually charms his female guests with. But O’Brien scores overall at being the adroit, perpetually wired ringmaster of his nightly circus.

Whether you enjoy the cleverness of O’Brien or the charisma of Ferguson after midnight, this debate will be moot in another year. That’s when O’Brien will get The Tonight Show and Ferguson will have to do battle with Jimmy Fallon. I get the feeling Ferguson will be a stronger force this time next year.