We do our darndest to cover the late night landscape in real-time, but sometimes stories fall through the cracks. We missed these stories when they happened this week, maybe you did too.
Louis Cato’s ‘Hello Goodbye’ Encore
According to our spies inside Stephen Colbert’s Late Show finale taping, no one was more emotional when cameras stopped rolling than Colbert’s bandleader Louis Cato, who delivered a tearful speech paying tribute to Colbert and the show’s staff and crew.
And if the Instagram video Cato posted earlier this week is any indication, he’s still feeling it. In the clip, Cato performs an acoustic solo encore of “Hello Goodbye,” the Beatles classic that memorably closed out the show on May 21:
Pratt vs. Kimmel
As he awaits the official results of Tuesday’s mayoral primary in Los Angeles, Spencer Pratt has been mostly quiet on social media—but he broke his silence Friday, sharing a clip in which Jimmy Kimmel said of Pratt, “We should be embarrassed.”
Pratt’s wordless response: a screenshot of 1990s-era Kimmel in blackface as Karl Malone, a portrayal Kimmel later apologized for, calling it “embarrassing” and hurtful.
Finally, a New Late-Night War
The jury’s still out on whether Good Night with Ben Gleib—the new YouTube show hosted by the veteran comic from his Los Angeles home—is the future of late night.
But Gleib may have found the Kimmel to his Leno in After Tonight with Tommy Afters, a rival YouTube show that (cordially) infiltrated Gleib’s paid Zoom audience live on its own show this week, then spent much of the rest of its episode taking shots at Gleib.
Rupert Pupkin’s Conan Era?
Speaking of basement late-night shows, bidding for Conan O’Brien’s NBC-era Late Night desk hovered at $3,600 for days before some frenzied action in the auction’s final moments sent the final price soaring to $26,000.
A second Conan-related bit of memorabilia—a crescent moon set piece from the week Late Night taped shows in Chicago—went for $2,750.
JAJ’s Trump Pimps SNL in Canada
With Saturday Night Live moving to CTV and its sister streamer Crave in the fall, James Austin Johnson brought his Mark Carney-mocking Donald Trump impression to Bell Media’s annual upfronts Thursday.
Anna Faris Gives Farrah Fawcett-on-Letterman Vibes
I debated writing about this at all, because it’s not clear whether Anna Faris is OK. But she’s always had an offbeat sense of humor, so hopefully that explains her odd appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers Tuesday night—and not anything more concerning.
It certainly made for compelling television as she confessed to Meyers that she’s been posting anonymous messages to him in the comments section of his show’s YouTube videos, then presented him with an award she’d custom-ordered on Etsy, engraved: “Seth Meyers #1 Great Authentic.”
Meyers, for his part, didn’t seem entirely sure how to react. At various points, he appeared confused, gently mocking, and kind.
We often bemoan how the tight choreography of modern late night has robbed it of the danger that made old-school late night so fun to watch. Not unlike Chris Fleming’s recent Kimmel shot, Faris’ appearance had that. The question is whether Faris herself was in on the joke.
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