Craig Ferguson knows the water very well in which Jimmy Fallon is about to swim or sink, and he urged writers at Wednesday’s TCA session to be kind to his upcoming 12:30 a.m. rival.

“Give Jimmy a month before you review him,” Ferguson asked. “That would be fair. I would’ve given me a couple weeks. I think you should give him a chance.” 

Certainly, Ferguson, (flanked by producer Michael Nadius, left, and exec producer Peter Lassally), who recently became a U.S. citizen and just got married a few weeks ago, has made the most of his chance when he started his post-midnight shift three years ago. He is arguably the hottest latenight host, according to both critics and the burgeoning ratings.

Ferguson’s trademark has become his unstructured opening monologue, which is a sort of free-form rant on what’s on his mind that night. It can offer anything from the typical potshots at celebrities, a cerebral look at the political issues of the day or, as was the case a few weeks ago, a catharsis on the death of his mom.

As for that particular show in which he talked about his mother, Ferguson recalled: “I didn’t concern myself with what the audience wanted to hear. What I try to do — and what I try to do 99 out of 100 nights — is amuse you before you go to sleep. That night, though, I didn’t feel like that. I try to be as truthful as possible. That’s why I approached it that way.”

His sense of humor, Ferguson said, comes from a very dark place.

“I think if you’re happy as a person it would be impossible to do comedy at all,” he explained. “My psychiatrist said — and this is true — that I have reserves of unhappiness equal to Saudi Arabia’s reserves of oil.”

Certainly, and Ferguson isthe first to acknowledge this, the show has greatly benefited from having talkshow veteran Lassally at its side. The classy Lassally, who spent decades with Johnny Carson, acts as a stabilizing force and voice of reason.

When asked about his thoughts of Jay Leno taking his show five nights a week at 10 p.m. on NBC, Lassally offered up this insight:

“It’s very brave of NBC but a big gamble. If Jay succeeds at 10 p.m., my concern is will people go to sleep after that? NBC affiliates would be very unhappy for the 11 o’clock news ratings to slip, and what would it do for the 11:30 and 12:30 shows?

“It could shake things up tremendously. Competition on latenights shows isn’t the opposition, but sleep. Audiences will have to decide whether they want to stay through the next show or not. Also, there will be five latenight shows in L.A. all going after the same guests. It’s quite a change this year.”

— Stuart Levine

Tuesday afternoon update:

Here the vid of the monologue. In this era of 'reality' TV, nothing remains more compelling than a thoughtful, intelligent person showing genuine, unscripted emotion in front of a live camera.

Craig confessed at the start "I want to run a million miles from talking to you about this...But I can't."

With all the hubbub over the new Jay Leno deal, the bloodbath of executive layoffs at NBC and the latest round of drama to sock the Tribune Co., a moment of great television may be overlooked tonight on CBS' "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

Ferguson's mother, Janet, died last week in Scotland. Ferguson was there all of last week, as "Late Late Show" was already skedded for a dark week. Tonight, Craig is set to talk about his mother, her life and her influence on his life. Judging by the humble, humorous, earthy eloquence of the 16-minute eulogy he delivered nearly three years ago after the passing of his father, Robert Ferguson, this will be a can't-miss monologue.

Here's a (low-quality) clip of Janet Ferguson doing a vid bit with Wu-tang Clan's RZA, for her son's show in February 2005:

Here's more evidence that there's just not enough time in the day to watch everything that you should.

Readers of this blog know I'm a mega-fan of Craig Ferguson and of "The Big Bang Theory," and so I'm sorry to say that I'm just now catching up with the appearance by "Big Bang" co-star Jim Parsons (pictured right) on the Oct. 1 edition of CBS' "The Late Late Show."

It's Parsons' first-ever latenight TV appearance, as he notes right off the bat, getting the audience on his side (as if they could resist him anyway).

Parsons seems to go in and out of playing himself and his "Big Bang" geekster character Sheldon in this 10-minute seg, but no matter. It makes for engaging live (to tape) TV because you can see some genuine nervousness on Parsons' part, but his natural wit and charm carries him through just fine.

Ferguson isn't easy on him -- it's nothing like a typical plug-the-show/where-you-from chatshow interview (for one thing, a few coffee cups go flying) -- but the tangents he takes give Parsons more opportunities to score.

TV's Craig Ferguson has reason to be feeling a little feisty these days. He's enjoying a slight ratings bounce so far this season. "Late Late Show" won the week ended Oct. 10 and is essentially tied with NBC's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" for season-to-date bragging rights in the 12:35-1:35 a.m. time slot.

Ferguson's uptick is fueled in part by CBS' solid momentum in primetime, and NBC's lack thereof. But I like to think that talent, as evidenced by the Parsons clip, has something to do with it too.

Craig Ferguson was in fine form on Wednesday's edition of CBS' "The Late Late Show."

He's never better than when he's fired up about some great big only-in-America topic, and tonight he was just that -- worked up about the state of the presidential horse race and the media coverage of it hath wrought.

Ferguson was so worked up his rant spilled over from the monologue into the first post-commercial segment. There were jokes squeezed in here and there, but you can see it in his eyes -- this newly minted U.S. citizen is seriously upset about the state of the discourse in the campaign and how much of a turn-off it is for so many eligible voters.

Do you know what bothers me is every election year you get the voter registration drives aimed at the young people. “Rock the Vote” or “The Vote is Crackalackin” or “Think the Vote,” “Music the Vote," “The Vote, The Vote, The Vote!”

Are we so lost we have to be sold our own democratic right? What the hell is wrong with us?  What is going on? We have to sexy-up the vote for young people?  ...

Listen, here is what I am saying to you, if you don’t vote, you’re moron. “Not voting is a vote” – no it isn’t!! Not voting is just being stupid.

Voting is not sexy.  Voting is not hip. It is not fashionable.  It is not a movie.  It is not a videogame, all the kids are doing it. Frankly, voting is a pain in the ass. But here is a word, look it up, it’s your duty to vote!

The foundation in this democracy is based on free people making free choices. So young people if you can’t take your hand out of your bag of Cheetos long enough to fill out a form, then you can’t complain when we wind up with President Sanjaya.

I agree with almost everything he had to say -- save for a bit of blanket media bashing that I can't subscribe to  -- but his underlying point was something that anyone who cares about this country can get behind. Get out and vote. No excuses, just make up your mind and vote on Nov. 4.

Ferguson pushed this point so hard on what he called "the grumpy political edition of the show" that held up a voter registration card on air and promised to give one to every member of the studio audience on their way out of the door.

It is kinda your IQ form on whether you can vote. All you have to do is fill in some pretty tough questions – names, address, when you were born, telephone – if you have a phone.

You can put, “I decline to state a political party.” I would do that if I were you, you know why? Just to be ornery. And then you just sign it and send it away and you get to be a part of the democracy that we live in....What I am saying is, please do me the honor of being my fellow Americans and vote.

With an invitation like this, from a charming Scotsman who is head over heels in love with his adopted home, how could anyone say no?

Sarah Palin has been the gift that keeps on giving as far as latenight joksters are concerned.

Anne Thompson has posted a LOL roundup of all the Palin quips that have flown during the past few nights. I got a kick out of the clips of Palin in her big-hair local TV sportscasting days, but my favorite Palin find on YouTube so far is a vidclip that she sent into to CBS' "The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" in June of last year, when Craig was on his campaign to become an honorary citizen in every city in the U.S. (That was before he became a full-bodied citizen of the U.S. of A. earlier this year.)

Palin sent in a vid message to "Late Late Show" in June making Craig an honorary citizen of Alaska. "This is God's country," she informs him. She invites him to come up to the wilderness and "we'll show you what fishing's all about. We'll let you partake of rich, succulent wild Alaskan salmon."

Ferguson demonstrates the sharpness of his observational skills in asking his aud, "Is it just me or do you get a kind of naughty-librarian vibe from the governor?"

Betty White red alert! The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is hosting a tribute to the thesp affectionately known on this blog as the First Lady of television.

The Aug. 7 event, "Betty White: Celebrating 60 Years on Television," is already sold out, even though it hasn't even been formally announced with an Acad press release. I noticed it as an events listing today on the Acad's emmys.tv home page. (Pic of Betty with Emmy swiped from that site.)

Among those set to appear are Ed Asner, Cloris Leachman, Mary Tyler Moore, Craig Ferguson (White makes semi-regular visits to "The Late Late Show," in a tribute to Craig's excellent taste), Bob Stewart, Gavin MacLeod, Tom Sullivan, Susan Harris, Valerie Harper and John McCook. Pete Hammond is set as moderate, and the event also promises a perf by Michael Feinstein. I'm there.

As Betty-philes know, her first paying gig on TV came in the summer of 1949 with her appearance on a local special hosted by singer Dick Haynes, on KLAC-TV, known today as KCOP-TV. From there she appeared on a short-lived (by weeks) comedy "Tom, Dick and Harry," starring three third-rate vaudevillians, and then she segued to game show "Grab Your Phone," according to White's 1995 memoir "Here We Go Again: My Life in Television."

Betty's first steady work came in November 1949 with the debut of KLAC's "Hollywood on Television," in which she was a "girl Friday" sidekick to Al Jarvis, then a top L.A. disc jockey.

"Hollywood on Television," by Betty's description, was a prototypical morning TV show. Betty and Al would chat about the headlines, interview guests ranging from human interest to celebs, have musical and how-to segments, etc. Five hours a day, five days a week of live without-a-net television. She did "Hollywood on Television" for about four years, and then moved into her first lead role in a scripted series, the syndie "Life with Elizabeth" (she did both shows simultaneously for a little while). No wonder she's so good.

TV's Craig Ferguson charmed the tough crowd at the White House Correspondents Dinner in D.C. on Saturday.

Ferguson's barbs at the New York Times for sitting out the dinner this year ("Shut the hell up, you sanctimonious whining jerks!") were gleefully reported by other media, but the "Late Late Show" host's remarks at the dinner were also full of the lower-key observations and word play that we've come to appreciate from this ex-pat Scot who clearly, unabashedly, wholeheartedly loves his adopted home.

Before he made the move from the Old Country, Ferguson noted, plenty of people suggested that he might like Canada, with its pockets of Scottish communities, a little better. Nothin' doing, he said.

"To me, Canada is not the party. It's the apartment above the party," Ferguson said.

When you're up watching TV at 12:45 in the morning, lines like that help you sleep a little better.

Here's some highlights, courtesy of CSPAN and YouTube. (Forgive me, Brian Lamb.)

CBS needed some happy news last week, and it got some courtesy of its resident Scotsman-turned-American in late night.

"The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" notched a milestone in its three-year-plus competish in the wee hours against NBC's long-dominant "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" by winning the week ended April 4 -- Ferguson averaged 1.88 million viewers for the frame to O'Brien's 1.77 million.

Not that latenight always has to be measured strictly a death-match, zero-sum game -- both Conan and Craig are very funny fellows indeed and viewers are well-served by their diverse styles -- but it is a competitive business and ratings are the yardstick by which ad sales and pop culture traction are measured.

NBC number crunchers noted that Ferguson got a big boost that week from the post-strike return of CBS' big scripted guns, the three "CSIs," "Without a Trace," "Criminal Minds" plus the circulation lift from the NCAA finals coverage, while NBC was still mostly in reruns.

Looking back over the past few weeks, however, the trend is interesting. "Late Late Show" has been making it a real horse race with "Late Night" of late, in spite of the latter's lead-in benefit from "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno." Indeed, Ferguson is more competitive with O'Brien than his 11:35 a.m. companion, "The Late Show with David Letterman" is with "Tonight Show" -- the berth O'Brien is to move up to in the fall of '09.

CBS' Craig Ferguson was sworn in as a U.S. citizen on Friday, at the Fairplex grounds in Pomona.

(For some reason that sounds to me like a Frank Zappa song from the mid-70s -- "Sworn in in Pomona." I can just hear Napolean Murphy Brock and George Duke going at it over Frank's gnarling guitar...)

Highlights from the ceremony and Craig's quest to become a bona fide U.S. citizen during the past year will be featured on Monday's citizenship-themed seg of "The Late Late Show." Seg will also feature highlights of his recent trip to D.C. There are no more ardent Americans than newly minted Americans.

More proof that Craig Ferguson is very funny fellow. He can even liven up a tribute clip reel for an exec who's receiving an honorary kudo -- a very deserving exec, I should add in CBS Paramount Entertainment Television Group prexy Nancy Tellem.

(And this just in, yes, Ferguson, the pride of Glasgow, is now a U.S. citizen. He scored 100% on his citizenship test, the results of which were tubthumped on his Monday show, which technically airs on Tuesday. He'll be sworn in on Friday.)

Tellem was one of four industry folks honored Monday night at NATPE's Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Awards. "CSI" creator/executive producer Anthony Zuiker was on hand to present the award to Tellem (pictured below).

Zuiker said some kind and heartfelt words, then cued a clip reel that started out like any other, extolling the successes and achievements of a remarkable career.

Ferguson appeared in a clip talking about Tellem's loyalty and integrity, and he added that she has "the best-smelling office in show business. There's always that slight smell of vanilla...and success."
Not such a surprising quip for a comedian.

A few more talking-head clips go by, including Tellem's boss, Leslie Moonves, speaking highly of the exec  who has been his close confidant and consiglieri for more than 20 years. Then Ferguson's back, only it's a clip of his head imposed on stock footage of someone riding a Lambretta scooter in Rome. And then Tellem's head pops up as if she's riding behind him.

"We first met in 1978," Ferguson's voice over says wistfully. "We had some amaretto. I had a Lambretta."

This is very, very funny....From last night's "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson."

"Late Late Show's" Craig Ferguson took a cue from history, sort of, in his first show back Wednesday night after the two-month strike furlough.

Near the top of his monologue he used the line: "As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted." The tale has long been told that when the BBC resumed television broadcasts in June 1946 after a seven-year lapse because of the matter known as World War II, the picture resumed with the same announcer who'd last been heard on the air in September 1939 with the line: "As I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted."

Great story. Unfortunately, it happens to be apocryphal, at least according to the Beeb. In 2006, BBC covered the 60th anniversary of its post-war return to the TV in-depth, and as it turns out, the opening words from host Jasmine Bligh were not quite as clever.

"Good afternoon everybody. How are you? Do you remember me, Jasmine Bligh? Well here we are after a  lapse of nearly seven years ready to start again and of course we are all terribly excited and thrilled."

The tall tale had it that the the BBC's picture went dark in 1939 in the middle of a Mickey Mouse cartoon, and that it resumed seven years later at the exact same point in the toon with the announcer's voice-over. In reality, the Mickey Mouse cartoon ran in full, then was followed by test signals. The tale is detailed in this BBC News account from June 2006.

Nonetheless, Ferguson seemed to be giving a nod to the past, at least the more interesting version. (My colleague Brian Lowry also notes in his insightful review of "Late Late Show" that Jack Paar also used the "As I was saying..." line when he came back to "The Tonight Show" in 1960 after famously walking off for a month in a censorship dispute with NBC.) He made his own solemn vow to the viewing public a few minutes later in his heartfelt, but still appropriately cheeky, opening soliloquy. In response to all the speculation that WGA-sanctioned David Letterman and Ferguson will have the advantage in booking top-tier guests over WGA-struck Jay Leno, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel, Ferguson promised:

"This show won’t change a bit. It will be garbage. I make you this pledge people of America. We will not improve this show. It will not be funnier. It will not be better."

What we really need now is a visit to "The Late Late Show" from Hugh Laurie. When he and Craig go at it, the brogue gets so thick you can cut it with a knife -- and us Yanks can make out about every fourth word. Now that's quality latenight television. Welcome back, Craig.

(Read Ferguson's entire monologue after the jump.)