Ferguson's Replacement: Candidate #3 - Drew Carey

[penpusher]

Forget the search... we already have someone who replaced Craig Ferguson as the host of "The Late Late Show." His name is:

DREW CAREY



On twitter, he's @DrewFromTV

And it's absolutely true. Carey has already taken over the LLS. On April Fool's Day of this year, The current host of "The Late Late Show," the very outgoing (and, of course, outgoing) Craig Ferguson (and his on camera staff), swapped jobs with the current host of "The Price Is Right," Drew Carey (and HIS on camera staff) for a very entertaining couple of hours of teevee.



Here's Drew doing what he do...

"Drew Carey Guest Hosts TLLS For April Fools 2014" (Watch on YouTube)

Drew's interview with 2000 92 year old Opera Singer Television Legend, Carl Reiner was a hoot!

What can we learn from this? Drew completely killed as host!

The interesting thing about Drew is that he joined the CBS family under some very difficult circumstances. As the next host of "TPIR," he had to follow Bob Barker, who had been hosting the program continuously since the early 1970s! That is one very tough and very long act to follow. On top of that, they renamed the studio after Mr. Barker and they had Carey close the show with Bob's famed "Have your pets spayed or neutered" tag line every day. Hard to establish a sense of self coming from that kind of situation!

But, in a huge way, all of that works to benefit Drew in transitioning to hosting "The Late Late Show." If he could carve out a way to emcee that game show that was different from the previous host (and "TPIR" now has little, if any, sense of Barker left about it anymore), any other similar opportunities would be a lot easier to handle. And though Ferguson is a beloved figure now, Drew really wouldn't have a problem following him, if he wanted to do it.

It's not clear if Carey has any real aspirations to host Late Late (certainly his jokes in that April Fool's ep suggest he doesn't!) but he absolutely must be considered, based on his vast comedic ability, his easy and comfortable style, his ability to conduct interviews and his nonchalance about the whole thing. If you make hosting into the joke, you'll probably get all of the viewers to laugh right along with you!

Carey has been the star of a long-running, self-titled sitcom, (where he met Craig Ferguson), hosted "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" for a number of seasons on ABC in prime time and has been doing a number of other comedy related projects over the past several years, "Dancing With the Stars" not withstanding.

Certainly Drew Carey has proven he deserves more than a glance when it comes to being the next Late Late Show host, and CBS could do much worse (*coughnormmacdonaldcough**coughjoelmchalecough*) when it comes to candidates.

Comments

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

I actually doubt Drew would take job, even if CBS offered it. But I think he would be pretty amazing.

So I take it this means you aren't into the whole Whitney Cummings concept?

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

I don't know anything about her. As a non television viewer for most of my life, I am actually surprised at how much I DO recognize in your television posts. I had to "look up" Craig Ferguson today, because you peaked my interest when you said he was on the Drew Cary show. I think a lot of my "knowledge" of television comes from hearing it in the background while cooking and reading, as the ex was an is the number ONE couch potato. When I first looked up who was being replaced (Ferguson) I did not recognize him as anyone I had seen before. It wasn't until I saw a clip of the Drew Cary show on youtube that I "remembered" who he was.I had thought that Drew Cary had TWO shows with his name in them, because of the difference in the "at home" scenes and the work scenes. I found the at home scenes funny, but not the work scenes.

I agree with you in that I doubt Cary would take the job. HIs persona has changed since his successful weight loss, and he seems inspired to try new things to see just what he can accomplish. Dancing with the stars is one of two non football shows I watch on networks btw, hence my meager knowledge about him. Until you started this series I did not know that either he or Wayne Brady was on daytime television.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

Drew's joke was that because he hosts "The Price Is Right," he is seen by 15 million people weekly, And when he added on the Late Late Show, that total ballooned to 15 million people!

Personally, I avoid daytime tv like an airborne pandemic. It's just not worth the frustrations and annoyances to bother. But the times I've watched both "Let's Make a Deal" and "The Price Is Right" have been fun.

And I figured there were some people who wouldn't know anything about my candidates, and I hoped my description would have won you over!

But on twitter, because Norm MacDonald has started a tweeting campaign to host the Late Late Show (#LateLateNormNorm) my tweets about these viable candidates are getting buried.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

So Norm is using terrorist tactics modern style?

My take on that.

I am still amazed at how much television my no TV viewing person recognizes. It is unfortunate, but inevitable I think that television has invaded our collective conscious and not in a "good" way. Oh I do not mean that daily television is anything bad, I think most people turn it on for the background noise to their daily lives, and in a lot of shows, that is what they are designed to be... non effectual not reactive background noise. non... meaningful.

You are correct in your assumption IMO that late night is more about entertainment and or stress relief than daytime is. Those that watch daytime don't generally work in "office hours" environment.

I am NON PERSONA when it comes to twitter, Facebook, pentris SOCIAL MEDIA impact. I do not use them, I do not know them. They are a non effect in my life. I think that little fact that makes a big impact in today's world as it targets me as a dinosaur. At some point I think some marketing genius will realize my group and angle toward capturing it, but perhaps not. We might not have the viable numbers to justify the effort.

In my experience most television programming is not worth the effort of being GOOD, and I have dismissed it. Based on experience.

[penpusher.livejournal.com]

The thing about twitter is that if someone (i.e. a celebrity) starts to trend something, people want to participate because A) it means that the celeb might see, favorite and retweet their tweet, which is almost like talking to a celeb. So, since Norm is doing that, a lot of people are just making these comments because they want a retweet from a celeb.

Personally, I think Norm MacDonald might have been an okay host if he had taken over for Kilborn back in 2004. Today? He'd be among the last people I'd want to see. I'm not even sure he can interview anyone! But, because of this twitter campaign, people are using his hashtag and saying they won't watch the show unless he's named the new host.

Oh, and if you watch NFL football (and you do) you'll see all the promos for all the CBS shows during those AFC related games they telecast. You know a lot about CBS and Fox and maybe a little about NBC, since they only cast one Sunday Night game.

[ravenfeather.livejournal.com]

good point about the commercials leaking knowledge into my brain.