science

The Late Late Show (American talk show)

The Late Late Show (American talk show) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Late Late Show (American talk show) rather than just read about it. In short: The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety comedy show that originally aired from January 9, 1995, to April 27, 2023, on CBS. Tom Snyder was the show's first host, followed by Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and James Corden.

Key takeaways

The Late Late Show (American talk show) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Late Late Show (American talk show) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Late Late Show (American talk show) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Late Late Show is an American late-night television talk and variety comedy show that originally aired from January 9, 1995, to April 27, 2023, on CBS. Tom Snyder was the show's first host, followed by Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and James Corden. The show originated from Television City in Los Angeles. At 2,058 episodes over the course of nine years, the longest incarnation of the show was under Craig Ferguson as host, between January 2005 and December 2014.

History

Tom Snyder (January 9, 1995 – March 26, 1999)

Tom Snyder hosted the program from its inception in January 1995 until March 1999. The choice of Snyder as host was made by David Letterman, whose contract with CBS gave him (via production company Worldwide Pants) the power to produce the show in the time slot immediately after his own program and who had an affinity for Snyder, whose NBC late night series Tomorrow had been succeeded by Late Night with David Letterman. The time slot on CBS previously carried repeats of Crimetime After Primetime. Snyder departed CNBC to host The Late Late Show on CBS. Snyder's show featured a mix of celebrities, politicians and other newsmakers, but was otherwise quite unlike the program hosted by Letterman; Snyder was a former newsman, not a comedian, and his show featured an intimate interview format with no studio audience present, similar to his old Tomorrow show of the 1970s, or to Charlie Rose show and Later, which had abandoned the format the previous year and had followed Late Night under Letterman on NBC. Though the show lacked a studio audience, Snyder still frequently gave extended conversational monologues, many of which contained jokes that prompted audible laughter from the off-camera production staff. Without the need for an audience, the show originated from the intimate Studio 58 at CBS Television City. Throughout most of the show's run, it was also simulcast over some CBS Radio stations, and Snyder accepted calls from viewers/listeners somewhat in the manner of Larry King; to accommodate this, the show was broadcast live in the Eastern and Central United States and on radio in the west, a rarity for late-night talk shows that had otherwise transitioned to tape, though due to existing syndication contracts and resistance to give up local control of timeslots, many stations, such as WJZ-TV in Baltimore, would delay it to as late as 3:05 a.m. When Snyder was on vacation, the show featured guest hosts such as Jon Stewart or Janeane Garofalo. Saxophonist David Sanborn composed and performed the theme music and several other songs featured on the show, all of which were smooth jazz pieces to fit the show's low-key, middle-of-the-night mood. Sanborn had previously been a guest saxophonist in The World's Most Dangerous Band during Late Night with David Letterman. Unlike other late-night shows, The Late Late Show did not have a house band (a tradition that carried on to its iterations under Kilborn and Ferguson) or any announcer, except for the last episode, when Snyder allowed one of his staff members to announce an introduction. Letterman had offered the Late Late spot to Garry Shandling, a former permanent guest host of The Tonight Show, but Shandling turned the offer down in favor of The Larry Sanders Show. (NBC had previously approached Shandling about succeeding Letterman on Late Night, but he had also declined that offer. The job ultimately went to Conan O'Brien.) Letterman also offered the slot to Later host Bob Costas who also declined. Shandling lampooned the selection process on an episode of The Larry Sanders Show entitled Life After Larry in which Snyder is poached from the post-Letterman timeslot for the spot following the fictional Sanders show. Letterman then insisted on Snyder despite CBS wanting a younger host with a comedy background and a more traditional late night talk variety format. In 1998, the network reportedly reasserted its desire for a host who could attract a younger demographic and asked Worldwide Pants not to renew Snyder's contract when it expired in September 1999, though other reports portray the decision to leave as Snyder's decision, with Snyder informing management that he wished to depart before his contract ended, as early as January 1999. Snyder returned to CBS to guest-host some episodes of the Late Show while Letterman recuperated from heart surgery in 2000. Longtime late night television producer Peter Lassally was executive producer of Snyder's iteration of the program and mentored Jon Stewart when he was a guest host filling in for Snyder.

Craig Kilborn (March 30, 1999 – August 27, 2004)

When Snyder announced he was leaving, the show was reformatted to resemble Letterman and other major late-night talk programs. Craig Kilborn took over in March 1999, having left The Daily Show (where he was succeeded by Jon Stewart) to become the new Late Late Show host; previously, he was an anchor on ESPN's SportsCenter. Kilborn left the program on August 27, 2004, two weeks after surprising executives at CBS and Worldwide Pants by announcing after several weeks of talks that he was not seeking a contract renewal. In a June 2010 interview, Kilborn stated that he left late-night television due to his belief that the late-night time slot was too crowded for him to succeed. Executive Producer Peter Lassally later said that Kilborn quit because he did not get the raise he wanted.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Late Late Show (American talk show)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Late Late Show (American talk show) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Late Late Show (American talk show) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Late Late Show (American talk show) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Late Late Show (American talk show)

In research: The Late Late Show (American talk show) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Late Late Show (American talk show) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Late Late Show (American talk show) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1990s American late-night television series, 1990s American sketch comedy television series, 1990s American variety television series, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Late Late Show (American talk show) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Late Late Show (American talk show) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Late Late Show (American talk show) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Late Late Show (American talk show) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Late Late Show (American talk show) in simple terms?

Why does The Late Late Show (American talk show) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Late Late Show (American talk show)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Late Late Show (American talk show).