New York Daily News
August 20, 2004
Instead, CBS and David Letterman's Worldwide Pants production company have agreed to use a string of interim guest hosts when the network launches its new season on Sept. 20, according to sources close to the program.
Reruns will fill the void beginning Aug. 30-the first night of the Republican National Convention-and until the guest hosts start subbing for Kilborn, who last week said he was quitting the show after five years.
That would mean three weeks of "Late Late Show" reruns, followed by weeks, maybe months, of interim hosts until a permanent successor is named.
"Nothing has been set yet," one source close to the production told the Daily News yesterday. "No guest hosts have been booked."
That's likely to happen next week, when key personnel (including Letterman) convene for the first time to assemble a master list and start reaching out.
Yet while no calls reportedly have gone out, from Worldwide Pants or CBS staffers, plenty have come in. Also, names are being bandied about internally at one corporate level or another, from Jon Cryer and Vince Vaughn to George Lopez and Bonnie Hunt.
There are plenty of precedents, and sensible reasons, for this very visible method of TV tryouts. When Letterman fell sick last year, a phalanx of guest hosts stepped in--including actor Vaughn, who did unexpectedly well and is just sort of "friend of Pants," according to more than one source, who would be a welcome and likely guest host on "Late Late Show."
Meanwhile, Chris Rock, an obvious choice for a fill-in or permanent host, had an exploratory conversation with CBS seven months ago, according to his spokesman Matt Lebov.
The call, according to other sources, was just to check Rock's availability; everyone expected Kilborn to renew at the time.
Rock hasn't been contacted by anyone at CBS or Worldwide Pants in the past few months, not even about guest hosting, according to Lebov.
At this point, though, neither has anyone else.
But those calls and decisions are imminent.
