Hoping for a ‘Later’ Resurgence

Born in 1988 as a vehicle for sportscaster Bob Costas to interview celebrities in an intimate setting, NBC’s 1:35 a.m. talk show “Later� has in more recent years been drifting along with guest hosts--everybody from supermodels to NBC sitcom co-stars to the wife of the show’s executive producer.

To be sure, “Later,� which returns from a hiatus Monday night, has taken an interesting, if creatively muddled, journey since Costas and his successor, actor-comedian Greg Kinnear, left in 1996. In the last three seasons, “Later� has gone through an endless number of hosts, turning into a low-priority show that NBC has left on the air sandwiched between “Late Night With Conan O’Brien� and rebroadcasts of “The Tonight Show With Jay Leno,� which air at 2 a.m.

Changes, however, could be in the works, with the recently installed regime of West Coast President Scott Sassa and entertainment chief Garth Ancier expected to renew efforts to find a permanent host for the show or, failing that, perhaps revamp the format altogether.

For Sassa and Ancier, the more difficult challenge will be to restore the cachet “Later� had when Costas and Kinnear were its hosts. Under Costas, who hosted from 1988-94, the show was a forum for relaxed one-on-one chats, with the loquacious veteran broadcaster lobbing questions at his guests. Kinnear arrived in 1994 as a rising comedic star who’d been anchoring E! Entertainment Television’s “Talk Soup,� a cheeky look at clips from tabloid talk shows. Accordingly, “Later� went from serious to sarcastic until Kinnear left to pursue a burgeoning movie career full time.

Under Costas and Kinnear, critics wrote about “Later� as if it mattered, and the guests were generally A-list--from Martin Scorsese to Ben Stiller. Nevertheless, the show usually struggled to draw more than 1 million viewers. Further, things in late-night polarized in 1993, when David Letterman left NBC for CBS, touching off a turf war at 11:35 between Leno’s “Tonight Show� and Letterman’s “Late Show.� At 12:35, O’Brien was just trying to prove himself to a national audience and to his own network, which was so skittish about his future that NBC would only renew him at 13-week intervals, with Kinnear seen as his potential replacement.

Today, the situation for “Later� has reversed. Nobody talks about the show, but its lead-ins have never been stronger or more stable, funneling viewers from program to program through the night. “The Tonight Show� is the undisputed champion at 11:35, having beaten Letterman in the Nielsen ratings for nearly four straight years. And O’Brien’s average 2.6 million viewers, combined with a strong showing among 18- to 49-year-olds, the primary sales demographic, makes him competitive with Letterman, a show that airs an hour earlier.

This has all helped make “Later� easy for NBC executives to ignore, particularly as the network’s once unshakable, and far more critical, prime-time position began to weaken.

But the network has other reasons for keeping “Later� on its wee-hours schedule. Cheap to produce, the show has been used as a quasi-audition space--with NBC trying out personalities being considered for other network jobs. And thanks to its dominant lead-ins, “Later,� which averages 1.4 million total viewers, edges out CBS’ more-ballyhooed “Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn� among 18- to 49-year-olds, according to Nielsen Media Research.

While NBC ostensibly began the post-Kinnear era in 1996 looking for a permanent replacement, a potpourri strategy eventually emerged, with ever-changing guest hosts--an approach the network likes to call “a lab� for discovering new talent. In the beginning, they included such future stars as Rosie O’Donnell and Jon Stewart, but over the last several seasons, NBC has dug deeper into the show business barrel, trying out people with little or no interviewing or comedy experience. There were supermodels (Cindy Crawford, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), so-called “urban� comics (Daryl “Chill� Mitchell, Duane Martin), actors from NBC prime-time shows (“Frasier’s� Peri Gilpin, former “Suddenly Susan� co-star Judd Nelson) and Rita Sever, who hosts another of NBC’s late-night properties, “Friday Night,� a comedy/music video clip show that airs Fridays at 1:30 a.m.

O’Brien couldn’t resist taking a shot at “Later� when Costas appeared on his show last June to promote the NBA finals. Noting that NBC was about to rerun “Later� episodes from the Costas era, O’Brien joked of the developments since then.

“It’s become like jury duty out in L.A.,� he said. “You have to ask not to be made a host.�

Female Comedians Serving as Hosts

The new “Later� episodes beginning tonight feature a series of female comedians, including Paula Poundstone, Sue Costello and Lisa Ann Walter. Among those not in the announced rotation is “Friday Night’s� Sever, wife of “Later� executive producer Gary Considine.

According to some who have been involved with the show, Sever’s role has come to represent how and why this 1:35 a.m. show has deteriorated creatively. Specifically, these sources cite a combination of benign neglect by former NBC bosses and the ratings runoff from “The Tonight Show� and “Conan O’Brien,� enabling Considine to run “Later� as he saw fit.

Sever, who began her career as an assistant behind the scenes on “The Tonight Show,� hosted five weeks of “Later� last season, more than any other personality. Two of those weeks fell during sweeps period, which generally draw more viewers, and by extension translate into greater exposure for the host, as the network seeds its late-night shows with marquee guests. That those plum spots went to Sever, in addition to angering those behind the scenes, has perplexed working comics, who not surprisingly view the half-hour slot as a valuable launching pad given its location alongside two late-night stars in Leno and O’Brien.

“It’s just so frustrating,� says a comedian who has tried out as a “Later� guest host and wonders why NBC isn’t using the time slot in more risk-taking ways. “There’s no other place to start [in late-night]. Jay’s not going anywhere, Conan’s not going anywhere. . . . Late-night in general doesn’t use guest hosts.�

Sever, interviewed from Providence, R.I., where she was taping episodes of “Friday Night,� said: “People are just going to do that stereotypical thing of, ‘Oh, you’re on the air, your husband is in the same company, you got the job from him. That’s been hard. . . . It’s a difficult position to be in, but I try to keep a positive attitude.�

While Considine, who is also an executive producer at NBC’s in-house production arm NBC Studios and has an advisory role on “The Tonight Show,� “Saturday Night Live� and “Conan O’Brien,� acknowledged there might be the appearance of a conflict because he runs the two shows in which Sever appears, he said that doesn’t mean she has gotten any special treatment.

“I am absolutely not involved in picking the hosts,� he said regarding “Later.� “Do I have recommendations? Sure. If it were my own world, I think she does a great job and gets great ratings.� In the five weeks Sever hosted “Later� last season ratings were up 15% to 20% among 18- to 49-year-olds, according to Considine. But, he added, the final decision on Sever’s “Later� run fell to former NBC West Coast President Don Ohlmeyer.

Now those decisions rest with Sassa and Ancier, and Sever did not make “Later’s� new roster. In fact, while “Later� continues to fly under the radar of media attention, the top management of NBC is suddenly giving it a very close look. Options for retooling the show are already quietly being evaluated, particularly with the current talk-show glut. Among the serious format contenders are a variety show, even a game show. That is, of course, unless one of the new guest hosts--all who come with years of experience on both TV and the stand-up comedy circuit--is able to make “Later� matter, once again.