Deadline Hollywood - Sponsored Issue - CBS

PROMOTIONAL ISSUE PRESENTED BY

JAMES CORDEN

Conquering Late Night

THE GOOD FIGHT

A new political powerhouse

STEPHEN COLBERT The team that Trump-ed the competition

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PROMOTIONAL ISSUE PRESENTED BY

STEPHEN COLBERT

The team that Trump-ed the competition

THE GOOD FIGHT

A new political powerhouse

JAMES CORDEN

Conquering Late Night

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4/3/17 12:27 PM

© 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and CBS Studios Inc.

© 2017 CBS

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How Stephen Colbert and his The Late Show team triumphed in Trump world.

BY

Antonia Blyth

Colbert Rapport he notoriously competitive late night arena has become one of the most compelling elements of television in recent months. Since Trump entered the political picture with apparently bottomless satirical material, the category has enjoyed something of a heyday. But The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is firmly at the top of that tree, leading in the ratings. And the reason it’s there, says showrunner Chris Licht, is less about catering to a ratings battle, and more about authentically reflecting topical issues.

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SHOW TIME Colbert with Michelle Obama (top) and Jon Stewart (right).

Left: Colbert walks through some pre-election politics.

“We have a very simple goal and mission,” Licht says, “and that’s whatever people are talking about, we weigh in with our own unique insights and take. Right now that happens to be a lot of Trump because people are very interested in him, so that’s dominating what we do in the monologue.”

With each late-night show doing its best to carve out a particular style or niche, Licht cites Colbert’s as, “a smart take on news of the day with a point of view, meaning whatever his natural feeling and opinion is about something in the news, that’s what you’re seeing reflected in the jokes.”

Licht’s news background—he was previously EP of CBS’ This Morning—seems pertinent in an era of almost daily Presidential headlines. “I have a good sense of what will get some traction amongst news organizations, what we’re

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talking about,” he says, “but you know, what Stephen’s point of view is, that’s all him.”

Day-to-day life on The Late Show is a constantly-moving machine.

“We have a morning meeting that Stephen and the head writers run,” Licht says, “where everyone will pitch ideas based on what the news is, what the stories are out there, and the writers really get to work.

Stephen rehearses and then there is an hour or so to touch up the scripts just before we tape. That’s

done every afternoon with Stephen in a small, yet very intense room led

by Tom Purcell, who’s the executive producer of the creative side.”

For head writers Opus Moreschi and Jay Katsir, it’s vital that the show be as topical as humanly possible, which means doing re-writes and updates until the very last minute.

As Moreschi says, “We stop writing as the show is about to start taping.

That’s how we do it.”

Both Moreschi and Katsir previously worked on The Colbert

“He’s always excited about the possibility of almost anything.

He’s not a guy who says ‘no’ if there are possibilities.”

—Head writer Opus Moreschi

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Report, and Moreschi describes Colbert’s working style as “eager.

He’s always excited about the possibility of almost anything. If someone’s pitching something, he’ll throw in jokes and play with it a little bit. He’s not a guy who says ‘no’ if there are possibilities. I think he’s got that improv background where it’s more fun and it leads to more funny things if you agree with somebody and explore.”

Katsir also speaks of staying open to ideas and inspiration himself. “As the show has gained more traction,” he says, “I’ve heard from my mom how she’s watching it with her friends, and the more she watches it, the more they have ideas for me on what they think is funny, which is great. It feels meaningful.”

The show ensures it’s not a target for ‘fake news’ accusations by continuing to take careful measures.

“We feel the weight of presenting things in an accurate way,” Licht says, “meaning we will use a lot of screen grabs of actual news sources to back up the fact that what we’re saying is true. There’s an enormous weight put on that. I don’t know if other shows put as big a weight on it, but we have fact checkers and we have a lot of systems in place.

That’s a responsibility we really put on ourselves.”

There’s also a sense that the show isn’t simply a Trump-bashing extravaganza, it’s about making jokes that work, no matter the subject. “We’re going to make jokes about people in power who are doing ridiculous things,” Moreschi says. “During the campaign we were plenty hard I think on both Trump and Hillary; the Democrats and the Republicans. It’s not about partisanship as much as it is about going at them when they’re doing something silly. I don’t have any strategies to seek out people with a particular viewpoint, I’m just trying to make a funny joke.”

Licht adds, “If you look at Stephen’s overall tone, it’s one of bemusement and not anger, so no matter what your political leanings, this should be an enjoyable experience. It should be something that’s enjoyable to watch and a fun place to be at 11.30, not some place that’s going to get you agitated before you go to bed.”

Speaking of being bipartisan, a revisit from President Trump is actually top of the guest wish list. “We would love to have the President back,” Licht says. “He has an open invitation. But you know, it’s a pretty wide open field with the kind of people Stephen likes to talk to, so whether he agrees with them or not, we’re very into all kinds of political guests.” ★

Animated Affairs

Animation adds a fun factor to Colbert’s newsy views, as animator Tim Luecke makes birds fly around Colbert’s head while he talks to cartoon guests.

“We have a very talented animator and graphics department and it really has creatively taken on a life of its own,” Licht says. “It’s been really one of the most enjoyable and popular parts of the show.”

Katsir adds: “I feel just very fortunate that we somehow get to make cartoons as well as a late night show.”

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The Late Late Show host James Corden and his team have ditched convention and taken Late Night to another level.

B Y Matt Grobar

lauded writer, producer and actor of screen and stage prior to his Late Late Show debut in 2015, James Corden has made a dramatic splash in late-night television in his first two years on the job. A multi-talented and effortless onscreen presence taking two Emmys in his first run as host, Corden has conceived a uniquely charming and creative series for the digital age, where relevance is prized over ratings.

Of course, it’s only with the help of executive producers Ben Winston and Rob Crabbe that the ambitious series is possible. Hosted by Corden, The Late Late Show has been a massive viral success—between segments including “Carpool Karaoke,” “Role Call” and “Drop the Mic”— with the host’s five most popular YouTube clips amassing over 500

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million views to date. These accomplishments notwithstanding, for at least one of the creatives behind the series, there was no real sense early on that the series would be a hit, or even a good idea.

As Winston recounts, a primary concern in approaching The Late Late Show was that Corden’s career “was in a really good place,” coming along just fine without rolling the dice on a radical new endeavor.

At the time of initial talks with CBS, Corden was embarking on a new Broadway play; he had Into the Woods on the horizon, playing opposite the biggest movie stars in the world; two sitcoms, successful in the UK and abroad; and a game show hosting gig to top it all off.

“At that lunch, when [Corden] sat there and said, ‘Look, I’d like to do this,’ I just thought it was a terrible idea, and I told him so,” the EP admits. Captivated by Corden’s notion of “cracking America,”

Late N

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te Night Revolution D E A D L I N E .C O M / AWA R D S L I N E

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RISKY CRUISING Tom Cruise re-enacts Risky Business; Lady Gaga rides along in Carpool Karaoke.

Winston was ultimately won over when he understood Corden’s mission and ambition with the series— to fill a massive blank canvas with his creativity, and do it on nightly television, a task that would prove a challenge.

“James and I were incredibly aware of what we didn’t know, of which there was a huge amount,” Winston says. “We hadn’t made television in America before. We were aware that we didn’t know who everybody was: guests, network chiefs, great writers. We were also very aware that we didn’t necessarily have an American sensibility; an understanding of what would work here.”

When Winston came on board, following a meeting with CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves, the challenge was to find the “perfect partner to join our three-piece boy

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band,” which they found in Crabbe, a veteran of two Jimmy Fallon-led talk shows and the only American among them.

United in their desire to do something new, the trio were also in sync with their sensibilities and creative instincts, Winston says. “We fundamentally did not want to make a talk show every night. We wanted to make an entertainment show every night.”

Out of the gate, Corden and his ambitious EPs set out to do things differently in late-night television, changing the layout of the stage and having the night’s guests share the couch throughout the program, enabling a sense of rapport and intimacy.

“I think, historically, these shows have a relatively stiff format, and there’s a reason, because they’re very successful that way. Since the

1960s, they’ve sort of followed a similar format each night,” Crabbe says. “And we do, to a degree, as well, but we also want to try and keep it unexpected.”

“We don’t necessarily feel like the desk piece has to be in the back of Act One, and the comedy piece has to be in Two, and then the guests in Three and Four,” he continues. “We will drop things into different spots in the show, or we’ll save our longest comedy segment, which probably isn’t smart for network television, but it will be very effective for the way in which viewers consume shows now.”

Certainly over the past two years, The Late Late Show has secured a unique space in the late-night world; with his unique versatility, dexterity and grace, there is no host quite like James Corden. “We always say, ‘Sometimes, it’s good to be fun

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TRAFFIC STOP Corden pays homage to Beauty and the Beast with (L to R) Dan Stevens and Josh Gad.

before funny.’” Winston says. “I think these shows are at their best when they reflect the host, and I think our show reflects James as a host. It’s an inclusive show, which is what he is.

He’s like everybody’s best mate, or

are always looking for the next great bit or idea that will keep the ball rolling, surprising their viewers and critics—and part of that process involves keeping up with the rest of late-night television. “There’s no

For Winston and Crabbe, though, the ace in the hole—the key to maintaining relevance and staving off redundancy, while navigating the relentless daily television cycle—is again Corden himself, whose performative range seems almost limitless.

“He can dance with Paula Abdul, or he can go onto a crosswalk and just be incredibly brave, and do an entire musical there,” Winston says. “At the same time, he can be really interesting and interested when we see him carpool with people. That’s the big advantage, and why our show will never become too one-tone, or too repetitive, because he will always make sure that we can mix it up and do different things.” ★

“We fundamentally did not want to make a talk show every night. We wanted to make an entertainment show every night.”

—Executive producer Ben Winston the funniest guy in the bar, and that’s reflected by everything, from having all the guests out at the same time, to having the cameras behind the seats, almost.”

Little inclined to rest on their laurels, the Late Late Show producers

time in the day to watch every one of them; luckily, the internet even makes that easy,” Crabbe says.

“There’s so many people that do round-ups. So we’ll peruse those, and I think it’s very helpful to just see what everybody else is up to.”

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OH MY GOODNESS The reappearance of beloved Good Wife character Diane Lockhart has made The Good Fight a show to watch. “Diane, as a character, works best as an underdog,” says co-creator Robert King.

“Just as Alicia Florrick worked best when she was in an environment where she had to learn fast.”

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FOR FANS OF CBS’ The Good Wife, initially, its

spin-off The Good Fight approached like a flavorless follow-up, lacking Wife’s beloved central character Alicia Florrick (Julianna Margulies). But cue Episode 1 and an immediately engaging stand-alone show emerged, with political themes coming in hard and fast. The opening scene sees Alicia’s comrade and die-hard Democrat, Diane Lockhart (Christine Baranski), bitterly slugging whisky on her sofa as Trump is inaugurated. A little later, we watch her liberalism called into question at her new, mostly African-American law firm. While The Good Wife distantly referenced the Obama administration, The Good Fight plays out as an in-your-face take on the reality of Trump-era culture.

“When we initially conceived the show, it was before Trump was elected, and we didn’t set out to write a political show per se,” says Michelle King, co-creator (with Robert King) of both Wife and Fight.

“But when Trump was elected,” Robert King says, “we had already shot eight days of our pilot, so we re-wrote that very first scene with Diane watching the inauguration; then, our writers room had written four more episodes for the series, but we threw them out, because they just didn’t seem current anymore. When Trump won, I feel the show found a reason to be. Every show’s in search of what it really wants to be about, whether it’s The Leftovers, Game of Thrones, even Breaking Bad.

You can feel that click in the creative machinery when a show knows what it’s after. I hate to say it, but I think we were lucky in having a Trump win, so unexpectedly, right when we were starting off our series.”

What really sets Fight apart from other current shows, says Michelle King, is its tone. “What we always tried was to avoid being earnest, because that’s the easiest thing in the world, to be preachy, to be earnest, and our preference is always to stay as far away from that as possible.”

Plus, there would be no easy way out when it came to tackling the issue of racism. “We didn’t want to write about the Southern, redneck racists,” Robert King says.

“It’s always such an easy caricature, and a cliché. What’s more fun is looking at the liberal racism; the racism that comes in a town like Chicago, where everyone is woke and all that, but there’s a real expectation of what an African-American culture would be. It was more fun for Michelle and myself satirizing that, because the obvious racism is so easy.”

“By the way, it’s not all anti-Trump,” Robert King adds.

“A lot of it is commenting on a change in the culture.

There’s a weirdness to the world now, it’s like gravity doesn’t work anymore, so a lot of the characters are commenting on how much has changed within such a short time, and that was one of the reasons we threw out scripts, too, because the zeitgeist changed on us.” ★

THE GOOD FIGHT How Trump made the show into a political powerhouse By Antonia Blyth

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FOR YOU R E M MY® CO N S I D E R ATI O N

FO CO

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O U T S TA N D I N G L E A D A C T R E S S I N A C O M E DY S E R I E S

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