Wouldn’t it be great if Louis CK replaced David Letterman when the veteran host steps down from The Late Show in 2015. American television is so mainstream, so smooth. It would be a wonderful shock to the system to have someone that brutally honest who really homed in on the hollowness and hopelessness of the human condition in such a high profile job.
In a way, however, we’ve already been there. In the third series of CK’s Fox sitcom Louie, the comedian is sounded out as a stand-in for Letterman. He is ravaged by his conscience. Should he do it if it means seeing less of his children? Would it be selling out if he wore a suit and lost weight? In the end he and after much wrestling with the issues he goes for it and ends up not getting it anyway when it turns out that the approach was part of a behind-his-back ploy to land Jerry Seinfeld on the cheap. Along the way though we do get the chillingly comic scene in which Louie is tutored for the gig by a mysterious executive played by David Lynch.
Yet life could still imitate art. American chat show hosts in recent years have been regularly plucked from the stand-up circuit. Jay Leno and Letterman were comics. Jimmy Fallon was a stand-up. The hot seat on the Late Late Show after Letterman is currently occupied by Craig Ferguson, who ageing UK comedy fans will remember as Bing Hitler. The Daily Show isn’t a conventional chat show but its host Jon Stewart came from the circuit. I remember seeing him do a set on an easily forgettable BBC stand-up show about two decades ago.
British television has followed the same club-to-desk template in recent years. Talk show hosts used to be journalists who knew how to ask questions and probe, but since the golden age of Parkinson they have tended to be plucked from the comedy world for sheer entertainment value – ie Carr, Norton and, most recently Michael McIntyre. In fact when I reviewed Michael McIntyre’s show a few weeks ago I couldn't help feeling that it was so playful-yet-slick that it felt as if he was auditioning for an American chat show. Little did I know that a vacancy would arise so soon. When I heard about Letterman's announcement my immediate thought was that if only McIntyre’s manager Addison Cresswell had not died suddenly at Christmas he would already be making a call to the CBS executives, putting in a word for his client.
So it would not be so far-fetched if CK’s name was in the hat. But if not Louis then who? Though maybe CBS would also be prepared to give the job to the aforementioned Jerry Seinfeld if he fancied spending time away from his classic car collection. I doubt if they would offer it to Larry David but I wish they would. And after watching The Larry Sanders Show lay bare the brutal backstage world of the chat show I doubt if they would approach Garry Shandling. But why not go out on a limb and offer it to the sharpest, funniest woman in America, Tina Fey.
Chat shows in America carry a lot more heft than they do in the UK. I’d love to be a fly on the wall in the CBS offices right now. Despite the fact that Letterman is going to be around for another year I suspect the succession is already being frantically discussed. As I said it would be great for Louis CK to land it. No, on second thoughts it would be terrible for Louis CK to land it. I want him to carry on doing stand-up as long as his screwed-up psyche will allow it.
