'Late Late' host mayhem

Stability is about to take the world of late night talk shows by storm.

David Letterman exits in May and Stephen Colbert will begin his "Late Show" reign in September. Barring something disastrous, all will finally be calm after 11:30 p.m.

Just a few years ago, nothing in late night was stable. The Jay Leno debacle at NBC created a landscape where anything could happen, and with Letterman teasing retirement for the better part of a decade, nobody was sure about the next generation of late night hosts.

Yes, Conan O'Brien got screwed out of "The Tonight Show," but his short tenure contained some of the most unpredictable and entertaining hours in the entire history of the genre. For a few weeks, Conan got to slam his traitorous network AND collect a massive paycheck.

In the end, Conan found stability at TBS, and eventually, Jimmy Fallon became the surprise superstar of late night.

Nobody seriously predicted the ascension of Jimmy Fallon. Thanks to his younger skewing, YouTube-friendly skits and games, more people are talking about late night comedy than ever before. Add ABC's Jimmy Kimmel and his viral-friendly antics (Mean Tweets is equal parts justification and criticism of social media), and suddenly David Letterman is considered the old-time traditionalist in the format.

Of course, anybody who watches Letterman knows that "traditionalist" doesn't fit his often testy and insightful interview style. Really, Letterman is the only guy still forcing celebrities from their comfort zones and asking real questions. Fallon may get to sing and dance with Justin Timberlake, but he also won't let an interview stray too far from whatever project JT is there to promote.

Then there's the loss of Craig Ferguson, the 10-year host of CBS's "Late Late Show" who quietly exited in December. His departure was lost in the hoopla of Colbert's last days at "The Colbert Report," and now, sadly, we have zero robot skeleton sidekicks in late night.

Ferguson did his own brilliant thing on "The Late Late Show." There weren't many skits or traditional monologue jokes, and Ferguson rarely seemed to prepare standard interview questions. The show had a true "talk" element that most shows now minimize, to the point where the guests stopped caring about plugging their movies and shows and just went along with whatever weird thing Ferguson decided to discuss.

Time will tell if replacement James Corden will even attempt to fill Ferguson's stylistic vacancy. Corden starts in March, and CBS has relied on guest hosts to fill the time slot in the meantime. Outside an insufferable week with the ladies of "The Talk," the hosts have continued Ferguson's "Late Late" tradition of not following tradition. The running joke continues to be, "Nobody is watching, so let's do whatever we want."

The result has been must-see entertainment. Whitney Cummings blasted the lack of a female voices in late night, comedian Adam Pally ("The Mindy Project") and guests spent the hour trying to annoy the camera operators, and Sean Hayes filled two nights with boisterous dance numbers and a ghost Maya Rudolph singing royalty-free ditties. Even Regis Philbin landed an interview with Letterman where Dave inadvertently insulted the incoming James Corden.

On a network as square as CBS, the insanity is welcome, especially in how it contrasts the competition's reliance on short clips of goofy celebrities and gif-friendly stunts. In its own way, the network is embracing the tradition of the talk show while doing something more surprising than the hipper, "unpredictable" hosts on the other networks.

It makes the arrival of James Corden somewhat anticlimactic, because I wouldn't mind a year or two of random celebrities taking a crack at hosting. Some would be great and some would fail spectacularly - either way it would be something to see.

Musician John Mayer hosts tonight. Wayne Brady brings his eclectic skills to the desk all next week, followed by Tom Lennon on Feb. 16-18, Will Arnett Feb. 19-20, Kunal Nayyar and Billy Gardell alternating the week of Feb. 23-27 and Drew Carey closing things out March 2-6. Make sure to tune in, because I don't think the fogies at CBS even know how to upload things on YouTube.

Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com.