Late Show UK

The nominations for the 2009 Emmy Awards have been announced.

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After 16 years (2,725 episodes) Late Night With Conan O’Brien ended on Friday 20th February 2009. The final week saw some of Conan’s favourite guests booked on the show – Bob Saget, Stephen Colbert, Nathan Lane, Martha Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld and even an appearance from Mayor of New York Michael Bloomberg. The final show saw The White Stripes perform. The final week was full of trips down memory lane with Conan looking back at some of the memorable moments from the past 16 years.

Other guests on the final show were former Late Night sidekick Andy Richter (saying “I told you you’d never last without me”), Will Ferrell with an impression of George W. Bush and John Mayer performing a song with the lyrics “LA’s gonna eat you alive” – a tongue-in-cheek lyric for Conan’s move to The Tonight Show.

In Conan’s final farewall speech at the end of Friday’s show he said he’d “never grow up” – a reference to how some people fear he may tame down his act for The Tonight Show. He said “it’s an incredible, amazing honor to do this show for you people… we’re going on to this next gig, and sometimes I read that it’s time for Conan to grow up because he’s going to 11:30… and I assure you, that’s just not going to happen. I can’t. This is who I am, for better or for worse”.

During his farewell speech his voice cracked a little as he must have felt very emotional leaving Late Night after so many years. Conan thanked David Letterman, who hosted Late Night on NBC before he moved to the Late Show on CBS after famously losing out to host The Tonight Show to Jay Leno. He also thanked Lorne Michaels (Saturday Night Live producer), the Late Night crew and band.

Ratings-wise, the final Late Night saw audiences “up a whopping 44 percent over the show’s season average, NBC said today” according to E! Online.

Conan now moves to LA to host The Tonight Show, which begins at the start of June. Late Night With Jimmy Fallon (which stays in New York) begins on Monday 2nd March.

E! Online – ” Conan O’Brien Takes a Bow on Last Late Night”
The Insider – “Conan O’Brien’s Last Late Night”
TV Squad – “How was Conan’s last show in New York?”
E! Online – “Conan Goes Out on Top; Dollhouse Shrinks”

Click here to watch a video tribute for Late Night With Conan O’Brien found on YouTube

The curtain comes down on Late Night With Conan O’Brien at the end of this week – the last new show airs on Friday night on NBC.

If you’ve ever wanted to have a piece of Late Night curtain, railing or some other Late Night With Conan O’Brien items from the set then you’re in luck.

NBC is running an eBay auction site with all funds going to the charity “House to Home Project” which helps families restarting their lives after a natural disaster with the basic furnishings that makes a house a home. Bid on Late Night costumes, Conan’s tie from the final show, signed drumsticks, props and more.

Click here to see what’s on offer and make your bids.

New host of Late Night from March, Jimmy Fallon, appeared on Late Night With Conan O’Brien last week to discuss preparations for the launch of the new show.

They talked about how Jimmy’s been getting into the right state of mind as talk show host by watching clips of old talk shows, and Jimmy also tried out some talk show host openers with Conan – including the famous Conan O’Brien “puppet strings” opening.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien will “Go Bye Bye” at the end of this week with one week of reruns to follow, before Late Night With Jimmy Fallon premieres on NBC on Monday 2nd March.

Click here to watch Jimmy Fallon’s interview on Conan (11th February)

The last ever new episodes of Late Night With Conan O’Brien air next week. The last 5 new shows air Monday-Friday in their usual timeslot on NBC.

There will also be a week of reruns after next week leading up to when Late Night With Jimmy Fallon starts on Monday 2nd March.

So far – guests announced for Monday are Bob Saget & thenewno2, Jason Sudeikis on Tuesday, Nathan Lane on Wednesday, Jerry Seinfeld & Craig Bierko are on Thursday’s show and The White Stripes are confirmed for the final show on Friday.

More guests are expected to be announced for next week soon.

Conan O’Brien will take over as host of The Tonight Show at the beginning of June.

Late Show UK – Guest Listings for Late Night With Conan O’Brien
Late Night With Conan O’Brien official website
Late Night Underground official blog
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon official website

The new host of Late Night will stop by as a guest on Late Night With Conan O’Brien before Conan’s last show airs in February. Jimmy Fallon will be a guest on the Wednesday 11th February show. The last ever edition of Late Night With Conan O’Brien will air Friday 20th February (guests for this show are still to be announced). Late Night With Jimmy Fallon starts on the 2nd March.

CNBC will air The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien when it starts in June, but will not be showing Late Night With Jimmy Fallon or any of the other late-night talk shows.

In email correspondence from CNBC, they say “of all the late night talk shows, we will only be airing The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien in 2009″.

With regards to whether or not we will see Late Night With Conan O’Brien’s final show in February, CNBC tell us “there are no plans to show Conan’s final Late Night on CNBC”.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien stopped airing on CNBC recently, and the weekend shows are now double bills of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno from 8pm.

CNBC say the decision to make these schedule changes to The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien is “to allow for other core business and news programming to be accommodated earlier in the day” but that they’ll “continue to review viewer interest in our entertainment programming strands and consider them if we make further programme line-up changes later in the year”.

We now have reliable schedule information from CNBC (CNBC Europe) with regards to The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien airings on the channel;

CNBC are no longer showing Late Night With Conan O’Brien at all, and have gone back to having The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 11pm UK time Monday-Friday in a cutdown 30 minute timeslot (instead of the full 45 minute versions).

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airs on a 1-show delay from NBC in America.

On weekends The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airs at 8pm in a 45 minute timeslot and another episode at 8.45pm (also in a 45 minute timeslot). The Saturday and Sunday episodes are usually picked from the previous week as two of the best shows from that week.

CNBC is available on Sky channel 505, Virgin Media channel 613 and Tiscali TV channel 510.

Now we have reliable schedule details, we are now able to provide information in our Upcoming Shows box again on the right hand side of this page.

It’s a shame that we won’t be able to see the final episode of Late Night With Conan O’Brien on CNBC in February, but it won’t be long ’til Conan takes over The Tonight Show anyway.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien will have its last episode on the 20th February judging by the Tickets page on the official NBC website.

If you’re in New York between now and the 20th February, you can get tickets for the final shows by sending an email to conangobyebye@nbc.com (good email address!) – you need to include your name, address, phone number and email address. Late Night With Conan O’Brien is recorded at Studio 6A, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York.

Conan O’Brien will start hosting duties at The Tonight Show on the 1st June in Los Angeles, California. Jimmy Fallon takes over as host of Late Night on the 2nd March in New York.

All US talk shows return with new programmes next week following the Christmas & New Year break. On Monday’s shows;

The Late Show With David Letterman will welcome British comedian Ricky Gervais, actress Kate Hudson and Scottish band Glasvegas. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno will have Terry Bradshaw, Jack Witherspoon and music from Iron & Wine.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien will have guests Benicio Del Toro, actress Sarah Chalke and Doyle & Debbie. The Daily Show With Jon Stewart will have David Gregory as a guest, and John King will be the guest on The Colbert Report.

Richard Lewis and Tracie Thoms will be on the Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson.

Other guests to look out for next week include Jimmy Fallon (Late Show), Kate Winslet (Late Show), Kiefer Sutherland (Late Show), Anne Hathaway (The Tonight Show), Dustin Hoffman (The Tonight Show), Daniel Craig (The Tonight Show), Kate Hudson (Late Night), Kate Hudson (The Daily Show), William Shatner (Late Late Show) and Amy Sedaris (Late Late Show).

Guest listings in full for next week and beyond are available here.

TIME has announced its Top 10 lists for 2008, including Top 10 TV Episodes and Top 10 Late Night Gags.

The Colbert Report episode from the 22nd January came in at number seven in the Top 10 TV Episodes list featuring civil rights activist Andrew Young and they discussed the strike by black hospital workers in 1969. This 22nd January episode came just as The Colbert Report returned after it had been off-air for the WGA writers strike.

In the Top 10 Late Night Gags list, the Late Show With David Letterman came in at number five for John McCain’s appearance cancellation near the end of his US election campaign. John McCain said he had to cancel to head straight to Washington to fix the problems with the US economy, when in truth he was still in New York for several hours doing other things such as the CBS News interview with Katie Couric. Letterman publicly tuned into the live CBS Newspath feed to see John McCain sitting with Katie preparing for the interview. Senator McCain was the butt of many jokes over the shows that followed, and after Barack Obama won the US election, Letterman said “you don’t show up for me – America doesn’t show up for you”. John McCain did eventually make it onto the programme though, and said he’d “screwed up”.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien was at number seven in the Top 10 Late Night Gags list for the “Zipline Challenge” he did when he returned to the air in January after being off-air for the WGA writers strike.

The “Who Made Mike Huckabee” ongoing debate came to a head on Late Night With Conan O’Brien in February after show crossovers between The Daily Show and Late Night (if you don’t know what we’re talking about, click here) – this is at number four in the Top 10 Late Night Gags list.

Stephen Colbert’s “Green-Screen Challenge” made it into the Top 10 Late Night Gags list at number three (click here to read more).

Jimmy Kimmel Live’s ongoing “I’m F***ing Matt Damon” gag got the top spot in the Top 10 Late Night Gags list (click here to read more).

TIME – “Top 10 TV Episodes” | TIME – “Top 10 Late Night Gags”

CNBC viewers will have noticed some changes in the schedules this week – ie. The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airing in its old 11pm cutdown 30 minute timeslot with no Late Night With Conan O’Brien at all – instead of the newly incorporated 10pm & 10.45pm timeslots for Leno and Conan.

I am pleased to report the CNBC schedules for next week seem to be back on track with The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airing in a 45 minute timeslot Monday-Friday at 10pm and Late Night With Conan O’Brien following on from it at 10.45pm, also in a 45 minute timeslot.

It’s thought the episodes will still be on a one-show delay from the US but it’s not 100% for certain – ie. NBC’s Friday night episodes of The Tonight Show and Late Night should air on Monday on CNBC, with NBC’s Monday night episodes airing on Tuesday on CNBC, and so on.

All of this is subject to change, so watch this space for any further developments as CNBC schedules do seem to change quite a lot.

Update (15th December): The episodes are on a one-show delay as expected.

Stephen Colbert from The Colbert Report was a guest on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on Monday night’s show (8th December). No Fact Zone have captured some fantastic screengrabs from the interview – click here.

Hulu uploaded the interview – No Fact Zone have it embedded here but if you’re outside of the US you’ll want some of this instead.

No Fact Zone – “EYE CANDY: “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” edition”
No Fact Zone – “VIDEO: Stephen Colbert on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’…”
No Fact Zone – “It’s a Christmas Miracle for International Zoners!”

Following on from his 20th November visit to the Late Show With David Letterman, The Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert will be a guest on Late Night With Conan O’Brien on the 8th December.

Expect discussion about Colbert’s new Christmas DVD (“A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!”), the Christmas period and probably talk about the upcoming January inauguration of Barack Obama.

CNBC have changed their Monday schedules to match the rest of the week. Instead of only having a 30 minute cutdown episode of The Tonight Show With Jay Leno at 11pm, they now air a full 45 minute version at 10pm and Late Night With Conan O’Brien now airs at 10.45pm after The Tonight Show on Mondays. This is the same throughout the week Monday-Friday – 10pm for The Tonight Show (45 minutes) and 10.45pm for Late Night (45 minutes). The Tonight Show and Late Night both air on a one-show delay from the US. “Best of” shows of The Tonight Show and Late Night still air at 8pm and 8.45pm respectively.

It’s been a known fact for some time now that Conan O’Brien will be taking over the reigns of The Tonight Show from current host Jay Leno in 2009. Conan O’Brien is rumoured to be finishing up Late Night With Conan O’Brien at the end of February to give him sometime to get ready for taking up The Tonight Show on the 1st June 2009. Jay Leno’s final episode of The Tonight Show will air on the 29th May 2009.

On media website Advertising Age they report Rick Ludwin from NBC Entertainment says “we hope to add from perhaps the younger part of the demographic that maybe isn’t watching late night at the moment”. Advertising Age also report “to get the word out about his ascent to “Tonight,” according to people familiar with the situation, NBC has discussed plans to send him on a cross-country tour of sorts, posting video on the web to tout the comedian’s antics, according to media buyers”. The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien is tipped to be more “edgier” than Jay Leno’s show. The new show will probably keep similar aspects to Conan’s current Late Night show – with wacky segments and “coarser” comedy.

So there’s only a few months to go before the last ever Late Night With Conan O’Brien – Jimmy Fallon will take over Conan’s Late Night show when he leaves. Jimmy could start doing Late Night in March or he could wait until Conan starts The Tonight Show in June. It’s rumoured Jimmy may start Late Night before Conan starts TTS so he can build up some viewership beforehand.

Advertising Age – “And Now, Conan O’Brien! … and Younger Viewers”

The schedules seem to be permanent on CNBC now. CNBC have been testing out various airtimes for The Tonight Show With Jay Leno and Late Night With Conan O’Brien over the past few weeks and it seems they are going to stay with the following schedule from now on;

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno airs on CNBC every night of the week. It airs at 11pm UK time on Mondays in a cut-down 30 minute timeslot. It airs Tuesdays-Fridays at 10pm UK time in a full 45 minute timeslot. Saturdays and Sundays at 8pm (in a full 45 minute timeslot) are when CNBC airs two catch-up shows from the previous week deemed the best two shows from that week.

It is also worth to note CNBC now airs The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on a one-show delay from the US, instead of the old three-show delay they used to have.

Late Night With Conan O’Brien airs on CNBC every night of the week except Mondays. It airs Tuesdays-Fridays at 10.45pm UK time in a full 45 minute timeslot. Saturdays and Sundays at 8.45pm (in a full 45 minute timeslot) are when CNBC airs two catch-up shows from the previous week deemed the best two shows from that week.

CNBC airs Late Night With Conan O’Brien on a one-show delay from the US, but as CNBC doesn’t show LNWCOB on Monday nights it usually misses NBC’s Monday show and airs NBC’s Friday show on the Tuesday.

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