Taping Date: November 4th, 2014
Air Date: November 14th and 25th, 2014
Where to get tickets: No Longer in Production
Craig Ferguson was my favourite late night talk show host. Something about his quirky sense of humour, along with hilarious sidekicks like Geoff the Gay Robot and Secretariat, always made me laugh. When I was planning a trip to Los Angeles for a week, I knew I wanted to try and see The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Fortunately getting tickets was not an issue, so myself and two friends attended tapings on Nov 4, 2014. Unlike other talk shows, they didn’t film the show to air that night. In fact, they filmed two shows, and both were airing later in the month.
We showed up early afternoon and parked at The Grove/Farmers Market, a large outdoor mall and market, which is the recommended parking option for all shows at the studio.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson filmed at CBS Television City. The line formed in the same area that the Price is Right uses. There is a small CBS Gift shop in this waiting area. After some CBS Pages went over the rules, the audience was lead up some stairs and up to the studio. We were sat right in the middle, and the seats were just benches, as opposed to individual chairs. Fortunately they didn’t cram people on to the benches, so we had a little elbow room. The audience seemed to be pretty hardcore fans of Craig Ferguson, so that made the enthusiasm of the crowd much more electric.
The two episodes were filmed in an odd order. They had Craig come out and film his monologue for both shows first. Then they filmed the rest of the episode which would air on November 25, 2014. This episode featured Kristin Chenoweth and Michael Ealy.
Following this episode, they went back and taped the show that would air on November 14, 2014. I’m note sure why they filmed them out of chronological order, unless it was perhaps based on the guests availability. This second show featured guests Jeff Daniels and Paula Poundstone.
The shows themselves were a lot of fun. The audience was really into the shows and the guests, and Craig and his cast are a lot of fun. It was a really enjoyable taping to attend, and the time flew by even with 2 episodes.
During tapings, Craig was known to throw small chocolate bars into the audience while proclaiming “Candy for everybody!” I actually caught one, and carefully protected it until getting home. Then I mounted it in a little shadow box and presented it to my cousin, a big fan of the show. I thought it was a cute little keepsake.
In addition to the taping, I also once had one of my questions read on the air by Craig in his email and tweets segments.
Unfortunately Craig Ferguson left the show shortly after. The current host, James Corden, gets rave reviews as well, so perhaps one day I’ll get to attend his version of the show.
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