LateNighter

2 days ago | latenighter.com | Bill Carter

NBC is broadcasting a special tribute to the late Joan Rivers Tuesday night featuring lots of big-name comics paying homage to her trailblazing career as a relentlessly acerbic, standards-challenging stand-up, with the comics mostly delivering jokes written by Rivers herself. Toasting Rivers’ career is a worthy-enough endeavor, and the show has a lot of laughs. But there’s at least one thing somewhat jarring about it. It’s on NBC. Rivers and NBC did make history together, so good for them.

5 days ago | latenighter.com | Will DiGravio

This week on The Late-Night Time Machine, we travel back to June 13, 1979, and the Burbank set of The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. Carnac the Magnificent was behind the desk, and a joke was about to flop. Johnny Carson was known for being a good sport when a joke didn’t land—as he proved earlier that same year when a fly interrupted his already spoiling monologue.

1 week ago | latenighter.com | Bill Carter

This Thursday’s Season 2 premiere of Conan O’Brien Must Go on the streaming service Max is reason for fans to celebrate. Not that there’s been a shortage of those recently. His podcast is already one of classics of that burgeoning genre. He turned eating nuclear-spiced chicken wings into performance art. He hosted the Oscars, spectacularly, and has already been offered and accepted a return visit next year. Those are just the recent hits.

1 week ago | latenighter.com | Jed Rosenzweig

Comedy Central’s “Best F**king News Team” is back to work this Monday, with the first in a week of brand new episodes. Jon Stewart will kick things off tonight with his guest Dutch author and historian Rutger Bregman, whose new book, Moral Ambition, makes the argument that our brightest minds are wasting their talent in corporate jobs when they should be making the world a better place.

1 week ago | latenighter.com | Jed Rosenzweig

Somehow George Clooney, who’s been in the public eye for over thirty years (and has appeared on countless talk shows), hasn’t once visited NBC’s Late Night franchise—not through the tenures of Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, or Seth Meyers. Meyers was set to break that streak when it was announced last week that Clooney would be guesting on Late Night this Monday night, but it turns out he won’t be appearing tonight after all.