Craig Ferguson is back with a talk show!

He’s got a new show on The History Channel, “Join or Die” that is starting tonight (right now, actually!) We are getting a monologue opening and guests. No Secretariat yet.

I miss the Late Late Show but so far this has same vibe. Glad he is back, he is so awesome in the talk format.

Well, except the audience is mixed up too loud., and it makes it sound fake.

I really missed Craig. This show is great and I hope it catches on.
I wish it was an hour.

Sorry, the format just doesn’t work. The first episode about dumbest political mistakes was a series of ancient jokes everybody told when they were fresh. The second episode about worst medicine was sunk by the fact that the comics didn’t know enough even to make worthwhile jokes.

Compare it to @midnight. The comics there obviously write many of their jokes ahead of time. They’re short, funny, and outrageous. The topics don’t drag on for ten minutes.

Craig’s style is improvisational and meandering and is best when he goes off topic. That works against the show. I like Craig but the show’s a loser.

It is fun, but needs a lot of work. For one, they need to have each guest bring to suggestions for each topic, adding up to the six they use. Each guest could present briefly on each pick and then the elimination could begin. Second, they need to stop saying “worst…ever” and then only go back 15-20 years.

Jimmy Kimmel even pointed out that Anthony Weiner wasn’t on the “biggest blunder” choice list and the whole thing needed to be re-done with him added to the list.

It needs work, but it is great to have Craig back.

Yeah, they sound a lot more obnoxious because of it, which probably* isn’t a fair judgement.

*But then again…

Craig’s also doing some kind of game show in the afternoons. I love him so I’m glad he’s exploring different approaches after the late night formula.

It sounds like a laugh track because of how it is mixed. It isn’t, but they have to fix it.

Yeah, Celebrity Name Game. It’s not that good. It’s got its moments though.* I’m surprised it survived it’s first season but I just read that it got renewed for a third season.
*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLwtSlrvoT4

Yeah, I liked the intro, and some of the jokes were good on the panel, but the actual game holding it together was not interesting.