Late Show UK

Senator John McCain - running for President in this November’s US Election - will be coming back to the Late Show With David Letterman this Thursday. This will be the first time the senator has been on the Late Show since he infamously cancelled on his previous Letterman appearance a couple of weeks ago. David Letterman mentioned his frustration and annoyance that McCain cancelled publicly on his shows recently.

The excuse McCain gave for cancelling his last appearance was that he needed to rush back to Washington to fix the economy, when it turned out he was actually doing interviews with Katie Couric and didn’t leave for Washington until the next day. It’s not known whether he will bring Sarah Palin - his Vice President candidate - with him to the Late Show, but Dave has hinted that he would like them both to appear on the show together.

Thursday will mark John McCain’s 13th appearance on the Late Show With David Letterman.

McCain originally exclusively announced on Letterman’s show that he was running for President in the US Elections.

Reuters - “McCain set for makeup appearance on Letterman show”

There are more changes to the CNBC schedules.

Next week will see The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airing at 11pm on Monday for 30 minutes, 10pm on Tuesday for 45 minutes, 10pm on Wednesday for 45 minutes, 10pm for 45 minutes on Thursday and 10pm on Friday for 45 minutes.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien won’t air on Monday but will be shown at 10.45pm on Tuesday for 45 minutes, 10.45pm on Wednesday for 45 minutes, 10.45pm on Thursday for 45 minutes and 10.45pm on Friday for 45 minutes.

Weekend schedules remain unchanged (8pm for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and 8.45pm for Late Night With Conan O’Brien).

It is rumoured that CNBC are testing out different schedules to see what works best for possible permanent future schedule changes.

In the run up to the US Election on the 4th November, NBC will be airing some special Thursday editions of Saturday Night Live throughout October. The extra Thursday shows will be 30 minutes long and - like the normal Saturday editions - will be live. The Thursday shows will air at 9.30pm ET in the US on the 9th, 16th and 23rd October - they are called Saturday
Night Live Weekend Update Thursday. The Saturday editions will continue to run as normal every Saturday throughout October.

Late Show UK - Guest Listings - Saturday Night Live
Chicago Sun-Times - “SNL going week day prime time LIVE before the election”

The Late Show Fun Facts book by David Letterman and the Late Show writers is now available to buy in the UK. Amazon.co.uk has the book and it’s priced at £7.91. The book - derived from the popular Fun Facts segment on the Late Show With David Letterman - is sold in hardcover and is a mini book. The official product description - “Few TV stars have as loyal a following as David Letterman - for the last 15 years, more than 4 million fans have been tuning in to the show for an hour of unrivalled off-the-wall comedy. Now, with Letterman’s first book in more than a decade, he gives his fans yet more to laugh about. Drawn from the popular weekly segment, Late Show Fun Facts is a collection of unusual, little-known bits of trivia assembled by the Federal Bureau of Miscellaneous Information”.

Buy the Late Show Fun Facts book at Amazon.co.uk
Click here for our Late Show UK store

There are changes to the CNBC schedules for next week.

The weekend schedules for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien stay the same (8pm UK time for Leno and 8.45pm UK time for Conan).

Monday and Tuesday next week will see The Tonight Show at 10pm UK time and Late Night With Conan O’Brien at 10.45pm UK time. There will be no The Tonight Show on CNBC on Wednesday night but Conan will be on at 10.45pm UK time for a full 45 minutes. Thursday will have The Tonight Show at 10pm UK time and Conan at 10.45pm UK time. Friday’s schedule currently has Late Night With Conan O’Brien on at 10.45pm UK time for 15 minutes only then The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 11pm for 30 minutes.

Monday 13th October onwards at the moment are the normal schedules (11pm UK time for The Tonight Show in a 30 minute timeslot).

CNBC Europe has a different schedule for most of this week. Monday-Thursday this week will see The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airing at 10pm UK time in a full 45 minute timeslot (instead of the normal cutdown 30 minute slot). This is then followed by Late Night With Conan O’Brien at 10.45pm UK time - also in a full 45 minute timeslot. The NBC Nightly News is on at 11.30pm UK time after Conan. The schedules then go back to normal from Friday onwards - with The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airing at 11pm UK time Monday-Friday in a cutdown 30 minute timeslot and Late Night With Conan O’Brien back to weekends only.

Last night’s Late Show With David Letterman broadcast on Diva TV seems to have been the last ever Diva TV airing of the show, as it’s not mentioned in the upcoming schedules at all on their website and on the TV Guide (UK) website. Late Show With David Letterman was axed to just being on weekends several months ago - it used to air Monday-Friday and on weekends before it was cut down to just the two weekend shows per week. Now it looks like Diva TV have decided to axe the Late Show altogether. Let’s hope another channel picks it up and let’s hope it’s a channel who understands the genius of the Letterman wit. The shows that Diva TV were showing on weekends were so old anyway it was hardly worth them airing them as most of the topical elements were outdated by the time it aired on Diva TV. Please feel free to sign the Late Show petition by clicking here.

Update (13:47) - All mentions of the Late Show With David Letterman have been removed from the Diva TV website, so this pretty much confirms that it’s been axed from the channel.

Diva TV - Listings By Week | TV Guide UK TV Listings for Saturday 4th October

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart is now available for streaming on Channel 4’s website for viewers in the UK. You can watch the shows for up to a week after their original More 4 airings. Click here to visit the streaming page for The Daily Show on Channel 4’s website.

Were you watching More 4 on Wednesday when The Daily Show With Jon Stewart didn’t play out correctly in full? It was the show with the interview of former US President Bill Clinton. Well, because of the error on the original More 4 broadcast, that episode will be repeated on More 4 on Monday evening (29th September) at 8.30pm. The Daily Show Global Edition won’t be shown on More 4 this Monday because of this, but you can still see it on CNN International if you have cable or Sky Digital. Check CNNI TV listings.

Letterman has spoken out about John McCain cancelling his recent Late Show With David Letterman appearance even though McCain went ahead and did an interview with Katie Couric for CBS News at the same time. Letterman said “I’m more than a little disappointed by his behavior… We’re suspending the campaign… suspending it because there’s an economic crisis, or because the poll numbers are sliding?… something about this stinks”.

Keith Olbermann replaced John McCain as a guest on the Late Show. McCain was supposed to be on his way to Washington for talks to resolve the credit crisis, but he was actually still in New York filming the CBS News interview. Throughout the interview Dave was watching McCain getting ready for the CBS News interview on the Ed Sullivan Theatre monitors during the show. At one point Dave shouted at the McCain on the TV monitor “You need a ride to the airport?”.

On the Late Show, Dave said “Senator John McCain, Republican candidate for President, was supposed to be on the program tonight. Were you aware of that? But he had to cancel the show because he’s suspending his campaign because the economy is exploding. You know who John McCain is… he’s the running mate of Sarah Palin”.

McCain originally announced he was running for President on the Late Show.

Baltimore Sun - “Couric, Letterman too much for McCain and Palin”
The Christian Science Monitor - “McCain cancels Letterman. Letterman rips McCain”

The 60th Primetime Emmy Awards took place in Los Angeles yesterday (21st September) and US talk shows won some big awards. The Colbert Report went home with the “Outstanding writing for a variety, music or comedy programme” award. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart scooped the award for “Outstanding variery, music or comedy series”. Late Show With David Letterman and Late Night With Conan O’Brien were nominated for awards.

Click here to read the press release containing all the winners
See who was nominated for awards
BBC News - “Emmys 2008: Main winners”
Academy of Television Arts & Sciences official website

I’ve just been watching the Tony Blair interview on The Daily Show from earlier this week.

Jon Stewart seems to take a liking to him, and also asks him some serious questions.

The interview’s available below in two parts;