Breaking into late-night TV has got to be one of the most difficult gigs in show business. The wee hours are littered with big names—Chevy Chase, Magic Johnson, Joan Rivers—who failed to make a dent in the cutthroat world of celebrity-driven chat shows.
So, I ought to be a little charitable to Craig Ferguson, who took over from Craig Kilborn on The Late Late Show (CBS, weeknights, 12:35 a.m.) recently. The Scottish actor, comedian and writer was chosen after an extensive search that saw the program feature dozens of guest hosts. After such an exhaustive process, you'd think CBS had found the perfect host, but Ferguson is still finding his footing.
The main thing Ferguson has going for him at this point is unbridled enthusiasm—he's said in interviews that his first show was like a revelation, when he finally realized what he was meant to do with his life. The problem is that the content hasn't caught up with the energy, so Ferguson is delivering lame, tired jokes in his monologue and comedy bits with far more gusto than they merit. His off-the-cuff remarks, though, are almost always funnier than what's in the script.
He also has yet to master the art of the interview, but he's affable enough that when he's got a good guest, he can be fun to watch. When the guest is not forthcoming or needs guidance, however, Ferguson is adrift and uncomfortable. Given time to develop his own distinct voice, like Conan O'Brien (who was a disaster when he debuted as the host of Late Night in 1993), Ferguson could be a welcome late-night presence and certainly more palatable than the smarmy, self-centered Kilborn ever was.
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Meanwhile, in prime time, yet another Vegas-themed show has hit the airwaves. Making its second foray into scripted drama, ESPN recruited Brian Koppelman and David Levien, writers of the 1998 poker film Rounders, to create Tilt (ESPN, Thursdays, 9 p.m.), a Vegas-set drama about high-stakes poker. At least that's what you think it would be about, but no matter how well Koppelman and Levien know poker, they clearly don't think it's enough, since the show spends more time focusing on the quest of three young players to take revenge on a legendary hustler (Michael Madsen) than it does on the dynamics of game play.
Looking every bit the low-budget production, with Canadian soundstages subbing for Vegas casinos and hotel rooms, Tilt plays like a lame straight-to-video thriller, and instead of the action picking up at the poker table, it screeches to a halt. Anyone who doesn't follow poker will have no idea what's going on in the card-playing scenes, and any poker fans would find far more excitement watching actual people play for actual money.
While year-end awards for films have developed into an entire bloated season, TV has only two real award shows of significance: the Emmys and the Golden Globes, handed out last week by the Hollywood Foreign Press. Thankfully rewarding the new and different over the familiar, the Globes gave two comedy awards to ABC's Desperate Housewives (including a much-deserved acting trophy to Teri Hatcher). Once again proving that traditional sitcoms are headed the way of the dodo, only one of the series nominated for Best Comedy, the aging Will & Grace, was a four-camera, laugh-tracked show. Watching Joey's Matt LeBlanc next to the other four comedy actor nominees (Curb Your Enthusiasm's Larry David, Monk's Tony Shalhoub, Scrubs' Zach Braff and winner Jason Bateman of Arrested Development) was like seeing that old Sesame Street segment, "One of These Things is Not Like the Other."