The Late Shift 2010: NBC Shuffles Late Night?

A big bomb hit the web today with rumors of a big shakeup on NBC's late night roster. Would Leno be dropped, or replace Conan? Well, apparently one great thing about the internet is that rumors travel fast and NBC was quick to dispel the disinformation. That is, if the New York Times is on your list of reliable sources. Here's the scoop, and it's weird.

Today:
Leno at 10:00 PM
Conan at 11:35 PM
Fallon at 12:35 AM
Carson Daly at 1:05 AM

Soon:
Leno at 11:35 PM
Conan at 12:05 AM
Fallon at 1:05 AM
Carson Daly...???

So basically, Leno gets his old slot back, Conan goes on later than now (but earlier than before), and Fallon and Carson Daly get pretty hosed. Will America stand for what might be about a sold hour of monologue and desk jokes each night?

Stuff You Probably Missed: Fallon Edition Mark II

Every now and then we post some of the best bits from Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which you are likely not watching. Which is a shame, because in the last 9 months Fallon's show has turned into a worthy successor to Late Night with Conan O'Brien.

Anyway, here are some of the best recent bits:

Seriously, it's good stuff.

This Week in Late Night: The Mike Meyers Apocalypse

The Inglorious Basterds promotional juggernaut is in full swing this week, which means most of that film’s gigantic cast is all over late night. Or they would be, if there were any talk shows this week that weren’t on hiatus. It also means Mike Meyers, inexplicably part of the cast, will be rearing his head on Letterman. If you’re in the audience for that taping, please be sure to bring a copy of The Love Guru with you and fling it at him as hard as you can.

So, since nearly everything is in repeats – Conan, Fallon, Ferguson, Kimmel (and The View) – and our listings are incredibly short, this week in addition to our short-ass listings, we’re also gonna have Jimmy Fallon Appreciation Station, wherein we’ll post a bunch of the surprisingly funny bits you probably didn’t catch because you don’t watch Fallon.

LETTERMAN

8.19 Mike Meyers

8.21 Patton Oswalt

STEWART

8.17 David Cross

CHELSEA LATELY

8.17 Jamie Klaer, John Caparulo

8.18 Josh Wolf, Heather McDonald, Michael Kosta

8.19 Jo Koy, Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings

8.20 TJ Miller, George Wallace, Natasha Leggero

8.21 Brad Wollack, Tony Rock, Sarah Colonna

JIMMY FALLON APPRECIATION STATION

It’s still kind of vogue to hate on Jimmy Fallon, but as a regular viewer of his underrated late night show, I figured I’d share a handful of clips you’ve probably missed as a reminder that the show is really not as bad as your friends who don’t watch it but complain about it anyway are saying.

With that last clip I submit there is simply not enough Obama - Bubble Bobble humor on late night TV, and so I salute this show.

This Week in Late Night: There Is No God Edition

ALERT! Robin Williams is on Conan this week! And Carrot Top is on Ferguson!!!

Set your DVRs and cross your fingers that he’ll follow his cowboy voice with his gay voice and then shift into his Indian convenience store clerk voice! SO WACKY!

Then set your funny bone to “stunned” when Carrot Top takes the stage on Craig Ferguson!!
Will there be props? YES! Will there be creepy over-developed muscles? HECK YES!!

Seriously though it’s a pretty light week for late night. Letterman’s off, as is Kimmel.

Conan
8.12 BJ Novak
8.13 ROBIN WILLIAMS!! The moment you’ve been waiting for!!
8.14 Demetri Martin

Ferguson
8.10 C-C-C-CARROT TOP!!!

Fallon
8.13 Seth Green, Avenue Q
8.14 Neal Brennan

Tavis Smiley (this is on PBS, just in case you’ve never heard of it, and you haven’t)
8.10 Jay Leno

Chelsea Lately
8.10 Jen Kirkman
8.11 Tony Rock
8.12 Chris Franjola
8.13 Arden Miryn, Matt Braunger

This Week in Late Night: Piven Edition

The Funny People junket train finally ends this week, which means we’ll get the last talk show appearances by the Apatow crew until the next movie rolls around. The Goods comes out next week though, which means between this week and next we’re going to probably see a whole lot of Jeremy Piven.

CONAN
8.4 Jeremy Piven
8.6 Ed Helms

FERGUSON
8.7 Don Rickles

FALLON
8.3 Marlon Wayans, Judd Apatow
8.5 Chris Kattan
8.6 Jeremy Piven, Greg Giraldo
8.7 Ken Jeong

KIMMEL
8.6 Doug Benson

CHELSEA LATELY
8.3 The Sklar Brothers
8.4 John Caparulo
8.5 Chris Hardwick

This Week in Late Night (Plus Mid-Afternoon)

Our Weekly Comedy lists were getting too damn long, so we've spun off the Late Night listings into their own post. You can plan out your week of talk shows much easier this way!

This week, the Funny People promotional train keeps on rollin', so there are a ton of appearances by the film's cast. Also, Judd Apatow is on Inside the Actors Studio tonight, so keep an eye out for that on Bravo.

Letterman
7.30 – Adam Sandler

Conan
7.28 – Steve Zahn, Jimmy Carr
7.29 – Rainn Wilson

Ferguson
7.28 – Johnny Galecki

Fallon
7.29 – Leslie Mann
7.30 – Tim Meadows
7.31 – Adam Sandler

Stewart
7.28 – Spinal Tap
7.30 – Judd Apatow

Kimmel
7.28 – Leslie Mann
7.29 – Jonah Hill
7.30 – Seth Rogen

Chelsea Handler
7.29 – Chris Kattan
7.30 – Greg Proops
7.31 – Jen Kirkman (repeat, but catch it if you missed it last week)

TELEVISION FOR THE UNEMPLOYED

If you're out of work, you have time to catch all the banal daytime talk shows too! Here's what's up this week.

The View
7.30 – Judd Apatow, Seth Rogen

Regis & Kelly
7.28 – Jonah Hill
7.31 – Adam Sandler

Late Night Reminder II: The Legend of Curly's Gold

Yet another milestone happens tonight on Conan: the return of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog.

People were skeptical that Triumph would make it to the 11:30 show, but he apparently taped a remote at Bonnaroo, and it's on tonight. No, we're not going to link to the Star Wars video.

But we will link to this one:



Also tonight, Jimmy Fallon has Our Lord and Savior Jeff Goldblum, and Mike Birbiglia, who doesn't appear to have anything to promote, so maybe he'll just show up and be funny. Who knows?