Craig Ferguson

There isn’t much room for innovation in the world of late-night talk shows, almost all of which follow the same rigid formula “The Tonight Show” laid out a half-century ago, but comedian Craig Ferguson has nonetheless managed to make CBS’s handed-down “Late Late Show” his own. Eschewing the snide, postmodernism of David Letterman, the everyman pandering of Jay Leno and the manic absurdism of Conan O’Brien, Ferguson has settled on a more low-key, conversational tone for his program. He’s gained particular attention for his monologues, which use scripted jokes as a starting point for long, off-the-cuff diatribes, some of which are unusually personal and even sentimental (Ferguson often addresses his history of alcoholism). His show isn’t flashy, and it certainly doesn’t make headlines the way some of his competitors’ programs do, but it often connects in a way few other talk shows attempt.