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''The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson. It is the third iteration of the ''Late Late Show'' franchise, airing from 2005 to 2014. It followed ''Late Show with David Letterman'' in the CBS late-night lineup, airing weekdays in the U.S. at 12:37 a.m. Taped in front of a live studio audience from Monday to Friday at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California, directly above the Bob Barker Studio (Studio 33), it was produced by David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Incorporated and CBS Television Studios. Since becoming host on January 3, 2005, after Craig Kilborn and Tom Snyder, Ferguson achieved the highest ratings since the show's inception in 1995. While comedy was emphasized in the majority of the episodes, Ferguson also addressed difficult subject matter, such as the deaths of his parents, and undertook serious interviews, such as one with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which earned the show a 2009 Peabody Award. On April 28, 2014, Ferguson announced that he was ending the show at the end of the year. The last episode aired on December 19, 2014. Afterwards, ''Late Late Show'' began a series of episodes with guest hosts; new permanent host James Corden began his iteration of the franchise in late March 2015. ==Show format== The show starts with a cold open which consists of a short monologue—at times featuring Ferguson, along with Geoff, his robot sidekick, and Secretariat, a pantomime horse, interacting with a member of the studio audience. The opening occasionally features a pre-taped bit. The cold open is followed by the opening credits and a commercial break. Following the break and his introduction by announcer Shadoe Stevens, Ferguson begins with "Welcome to Los Angeles, California, welcome to the ''Late Late Show'', I am your host, TV's Craig Ferguson"; this is soon followed by "It's a great day for America, everybody!" and a free-form, largely ad-libbed monologue. After another commercial break, Ferguson is seated behind his desk, where he usually reads and responds to viewer e-mail and (since February 2010) Tweets; sometimes during this segment, he will have a guest star with him. He calls his Twitter followers his "robot skeleton army." Generally, one or two celebrities are interviewed; Ferguson starts each by dramatically ripping up note cards written for the interview, "signalling to the audience, and to the guest, that this conversation need not be rigidly managed." Sometimes a stand-up comedian or a musical guest performs, the latter of which is typically pre-taped.〔 Ferguson has had many running gags. These have included themed weeks such as "Crab Week", "Magic Week" and "Shark Week",〔Shark Week was apparently a reference to Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, and that channel, saying that Ferguson has always loved Shark Week, scheduled him for an appearance on August 4, 2010. 〕 "Dear Aquaman" (in which Ferguson dresses as the superhero and gives advice), a "photo of Paul McCartney" joke (wherein Ferguson will call for a photo of McCartney, which is actually a photo of actress Angela Lansbury and vice versa); the show often uses variations of this gag featuring other pairs of look-alike celebrities, such as Cher being shown as Marilyn Manson.〔e.g. ("Do we have a picture of Cher?" ) from cbs.com〕 The show ends with "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?", a segment that starts with an animation of a kitten and in which Ferguson "removes his tie, puts his feet on his desk, and summarizes the preceding hour of TV." ==Production milestones== Ferguson's first show as host was on January 3, 2005. For approximately the first two months, he continued his predecessor's monologue format, reading 5–10 jokes from cue cards.〔 He would ad-lib between the jokes, and soon noticed that the "stuff in-between" got the most reaction from his audience; after that realization, he decided he and his writers would stop writing jokes.〔 By May 2006, Studio 58, the CBS Television City venue from which the show is taped, had been updated with a digital broadcast Solid State Logic mixing console, needed for 5.1 Channel Surround. A new set debuted on the July 24, 2006 episode. It included a miniature CBS dirigible that floated along over the backdrop depicting Los Angeles. In the week of March 17, 2008, ''The Late Late Show'' debuted a new set featuring a desk/interview area on a raised platform; the backdrop was also changed to a detailed representation of Los Angeles. When the 2007-08 Writers Guild of America strike began, the show went into reruns. It resumed production on January 2, 2008 after Worldwide Pants and the WGA came to an agreement. In 2008, Worldwide Pants Incorporated signed a product placement deal with Ford to promote the Ford Flex during ''The Late Late Show''. Eight episodes ("with one repeat") of the show included custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a Scottish rap band called The Highlanderz (consisting of Angus "Big Ginger" Ferguson, Philip "The Howler" McGrade, and Shannon "Bubbles" McGee), riding in a Flex as they traveled from Los Angeles International Airport to the CBS Studio.〔 〕 The skits were shown on successive Thursdays starting on September 4. On August 31, 2009, the show began broadcasting in high definition, featuring a refitted studio and production facilities, along with a new show logo, new lights, an opening title sequence that "features Ferguson in iconic Los Angeles locations", and a new arrangement of the show's theme song. Ferguson's initial contract as host was for six years, until the end of 2010; as of August 2007 he was telling television critics he might not be interested in a contract renewal,〔 though by February 2008, he was publicly professing his loyalty to David Letterman, saying "I will sit behind Dave as long as he sits there." December 15, 2009 marked his 1,000th episode as host. For the occasion puppets took over the show;〔 Ferguson conducted the entire show as his puppet Wavy Ranchero, and recurring sketches also featured puppet replacements. Guests, which were not puppets, included Kristen Bell, Maria Bello, and Jason Schwartzman. Jason Segel also made an appearance as his muppet Dracula, performing a musical number with band The Broken West. On March 31, 2010, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Georgia announced that the ''Late Late Show'' had won the Peabody Award for Excellence in Television for its "Evening with Archbishop Desmond Tutu" episode. According to the Peabody Board, "the Scottish-born Ferguson has made late-night television safe again for ideas." On April 3, 2012, CBS announced Ferguson agreed to a contract extension through 2014. As part of the deal, CBS will co-produce the show with Worldwide Pants and CBS Television Studios and the show will move to a bigger studio. Although financial terms were not disclosed, the extension likely included a raise beyond what ''Variety'' reported had been his $13 million salary. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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