1988–1994: Bob Costas In
1988, NBC decided to again start producing original programming in the 1:30 a.m. Monday through Thursday slot following an almost five-year period—ever since the late fall 1983 cancellation of
NBC News Overnight—during which the time slot had been vacant and
local affiliates either
signed off for the night or programmed the airtime themselves. NBC sportscaster
Bob Costas was announced in late February 1988 as the host of a new program set to debut some six months later in August of that year. By the time he was hired for NBC's new late-night talk show, 36-year-old Costas had been with
NBC Sports for almost a decade, most prominently as the
studio host of the
NFL Live! pre-game show as part of the
network's NFL package. He had furthermore been handling
play-by-play announcing for the network's
baseball telecasts (alongside
color commentator Tony Kubek), and occasionally on their
NCAA basketball telecasts as well. Only a month after being announced as the host of the upcoming late-night show, he was also appointed to host NBC's late night coverage from the upcoming
1988 Olympics in
Seoul,
South Korea. Outside of NBC, since November 1986, he had been hosting
Costas Coast to Coast, a two-hour, nationally-syndicated Sunday night interview show, reportedly carried weekly by over 150 radio stations, where he got to branch out into longer-form interviews with various athletes. Created and produced by Ebersol, he initially envisioned
Later as a nightly reflection on current events in sports and pop culture. On several occasions, an interview with a particularly noteworthy guest (examples include
Paul McCartney,
David Crosby,
Bob Seger,
Don Rickles,
Jerry Lewis,
David Letterman,
Garry Shandling,
Siskel &
Ebert,
Mel Brooks,
Roger Corman,
Robert Duvall and
Martin Scorsese) was shown over multiple nights. These in-depth discussions won Costas much praise for his interviewing skills. Costas resided in
St. Louis throughout his run on
Later, flying to New York City once per week to shoot a week's worth of shows, recording all four in a single day. (
Later did not air on Fridays as the hour-long music video program
Friday Night Videos occupied the time slot following
Late Night.) Debuting on August 7, 1988, guests during the show's first week of episodes were
Linda Ellerbee,
Gary Coleman and
Billy Crystal. An early, generally positive review in
Chicago Tribune, though not sure about the need for yet another [nationally broadcast] talk-show, still complimented Costas for coming across as "incontestably genial and dedicatedly sincere" and being "a deft interviewer and a good listener, who knows when to keep quiet, and whose ego doesn't splatter all over the set like
Donahue's,
Winfrey's,
Rivera's, and
Downey's".
Los Angeles Times television critic
Howard Rosenberg—though heaping praise on Costas as one of "the best, smartest and wittiest sportscasters in the business", being "a talk show host in a sportscaster's body", and "an ideal candidate to succeed in any area of broadcasting"—felt that, on
Later, Costas needed time to improve due to a poor choice of "uninspired" guests. Only weeks into its run,
Later was preempted for NBC's
telecast of the
1988 Summer Olympics, with Costas hosting the network's Olympic late-night coverage that aired live on the
U.S. West Coast from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m.
Pacific Time.—
Later with Bob Costas struggled for ratings individually, rarely clearing one million viewers. Still, with Ebersol's ever-expanding influence on NBC's decision making—now via a formal return to the network's executive management as he was named president of NBC Sports in April 1989, followed by another promotion in July to senior vice president of
NBC News in charge of the
Today program—both
Later and Costas continued receiving ample support, attention, and cross-promotion within the network. With his mentor Ebersol firmly established as one of NBC's top executives, wielding influence in the network's sports, entertainment, and news divisions, Costas also benefited. Adding to his existing duties, he began to substitute host for
Bryant Gumbel on the highly-rated
Today while, from April 1990, reruns of
Later with Bob Costas began airing on NBC's recently-launched cable channel
CNBC. Costas's duties with NBC Sports would expand in 1990. With NBC paying US$600 million over a four-year contract for the American network television broadcast rights to the
NBA, beginning with the
1990-91 season, Costas was announced in May 1990 as one of the network's two primary announcers for the upcoming
NBA telecasts starting in November 1990. Initially splitting the play-by-play and host assignments during the regular season and playoffs with
Marv Albert, Though they met for the first (and last) time face-to-face on this occasion, former NBC late night host Snyder now doing a nightly radio show for
ABC Radio and shock jock Stern
heard in the
New York City,
Philadelphia, and
D.C. radio markets had had a prior record of mutual attacks on their respective media outlets that continued after their
Later confrontation. On October 3, 1991,
Later celebrated the third anniversary of its premiere, with an hour-long special airing at 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time, during the time slot normally reserved for
The Tonight Show.
Later went on two-month hiatus for the summer of 1992, from late June until early September, in order to accommodate Costas's coveted assignment hosting NBC's primetime coverage of the
1992 Summer Olympics in
Barcelona. During December 1992, finishing up his ninth year as host of NBC's NFL coverage, Costas announced he would not be returning as studio host for the telecasts the following season, citing a desire to do something beyond "reading the scores in three minutes during the halftime". In late January 1993, to celebrate its fifth year on the air,
Later taped a special anniversary show—
5 Years Later—in front of a live audience at the
Tonight Show with Jay Leno studio at
NBC Studios in
Burbank; it aired on the Saturday before that year's
Super Bowl, held at the
Rose Bowl in
Pasadena, with Costas pulling double duty that weekend on
Later as well as on NBC Sports' Super Bowl coverage. During one of his last shows, Costas said personal considerations led to his decision to leave
Later. He did not want to move his family to New York and felt worn out by the workload consisting of his obligations with
NBC Sports and his duties on
Later. Costas' last episode, an hour-long special, aired on Friday, February 25, 1994. In January 2019, after leaving NBC, he expressed interest in reviving
Later on another network. After making a much-publicized switch to
CBS,
David Letterman (who, until June 1993, had hosted
Later's NBC lead-in
Late Night with David Letterman) and his
production company offered Costas a job hosting the soon-to-launch
The Late Late Show, based on his performance and exposure on
Later. CBS also offered Costas a correspondent role on
60 Minutes if he accepted Letterman's offer. Costas declined, however, citing his relationship with Ebersol and his desire to remain with NBC Sports. Instead, Tom Snyder would become the inaugural host of
The Late Late Show, which began its run in January 1995.
1994–1996: Greg Kinnear In late November 1993, as a consequence of Costas and NBC being in the process of finalizing his new deal that was to be based around sports, NBC named
Greg Kinnear (who had been hosting the
E!: Entertainment Television comedy clip show
Talk Soup since its 1991 debut) as the new host of
Later, initially set to take over in mid-January 1994. Kinnear's signing with NBC came amid him negotiating with a number of other American television broadcasters, including
Fox (that reportedly floated a talk show opportunity in the wake of the quick demise of
The Chevy Chase Show),
Disney (which discussed potential sitcom and talk-show projects), and
CBS (which considered him for the post-
Letterman slot). Reportedly competing for the
Later job against over two-dozen other candidates—including
MTV's
Chris Connelly and
Rolling Stones
Bill Zehme—Kinnear ended up getting hired without a
screen test with NBC additionally throwing possible
prime-time specials into the deal. Right from the announcement of his stepping into the
Later job on NBC, Kinnear was seen by many in the American television industry not only as a successor to Bob Costas but also a potential replacement for the novice performer
Conan O'Brien, whose
talk show in the preceding 12:35 a.m. Eastern Time slot had been suffering from low ratings and poor reviews ever since it debuted on the network months prior. Set to begin daily tapings at NBC Studios' Studio 5 in Burbank on Valentine's Day, damage to the building from the
1994 Northridge earthquake resulted in Kinnear's
Later debut being postponed by two weeks until February 28, with
Seinfelds
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as his first guest. Incidentally on the same night, his NBC lead-in—the struggling ''
Late Night with Conan O'Brien''—had the
franchise's former host, David Letterman, whose new CBS show had in the meantime become the highest-rated late-night program, on as guest. Noting Kinnear's snide remarks during the Louis-Dreyfus interview, the critic complained about the scripted gimmicks employed to liven up the conversation, before concluding that the show's biggest problem is the presence of the studio audience. Though allowing that Kinnear "certainly deserves his shot at the big time" and that his show has "a certain efficient intimacy",
Entertainment Weekly television critic
Ken Tucker also felt that smirking Kinnear, whom he felt was "constantly on the verge of allowing his raised-eyebrow knowingness to get the best of him", would benefit from examining
Tom Snyder's nightly CNBC cable talk show, observing Snyder as "a middle-aged man on television who isn't trying to pass for a 20-year-old hipster" and reducing "the debilitating irony and self-consciousness that cripples so much [of American] pop culture these days". Generally seen as a more polished on-screen performer than learning-on-the-job O'Brien—and especially with O'Brien in danger of imminent cancellation on several occasions during 1994 as well as being renewed by the network on 13-week intervals—Kinnear was heavily rumored to be likely taking over the struggling 12:35 a.m. show. O'Brien would eventually be kept on. In addition to his daily duties on
Later and
Talk Soup, Kinnear pursued acting work in
Hollywood. Over three months during the fall of 1994, as part of the casting process for the upcoming remake of
Billy Wilder's 1954 romantic comedy-drama
Sabrina, Kinnear was summoned for conversations with film director
Sydney Pollack and producer
Scott Rudin, who had begun considering 31-year-old television host for the part of a billionaire's
playboy son (played by
William Holden in the original movie), reportedly solely off Kinnear's television performances on E! and NBC. The part had previously been offered to superstar
Tom Cruise, the star of Pollack's 1993 box-office hit
The Firm, who turned it down due to a scheduling conflict. Following a screen test in October 1994, Kinnear was offered the part just before Christmas. He took another leave of absence from the show in March 1996 to shoot the comedy film
Dear God, directed by
Garry Marshall, who offered Kinnear the lead role, having first met him while appearing as a guest on
Later. Covering for Kinnear's absence this time, NBC prepared a guest host lineup for six consecutive weeks:
Jon Stewart,
Alexandra Wentworth,
Jay Thomas,
David Alan Grier, Peter Tilden,
Jeff Cesario, and
George Wallace. Into 1996,
Later with Greg Kinnear went through a slight format change; the standard announcer introduction, opening monologue, and the "Later Letter" segment were all dropped to allow more interview time with the guest. In late May 1996, Kinnear was off again, shooting
A Smile Like Yours, while NBC lined up a new batch of guest hosts to fill in for him on
Later for the entire month—
Geraldo Rivera,
Eric Tunney,
Richard Belzer,
Bill Zehme,
Jeff Ross,
Marc Maron,
Al Roker, and
Carol Leifer—followed by another six weeks of reruns. His last episode as host aired on October 10, 1996.
1996–2000: Guest hosts and occasional SCTV reruns After Kinnear's departure, NBC initially continued with the practice of having guest hosts while ostensibly looking for a permanent hosting solution to emerge. More generally, with its lead-ins—
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno (which had been the most-watched late night show since the summer of 1995) and ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien
(which averaged 2.6 million viewers with a strong showing among 18-to-49-year-olds)—dominating American late night television and ensuring enough spill-over viewership for Later'', NBC reportedly began to treat the 1:35 a.m. show as "a lab" for discovering new talent. actor
Matthew Perry, It was then brought back for week-long stints three more times—in March, April, and June–July 1999, respectively. Several years into the rotating guest hosts strategy, to the extent that it even generated press coverage anymore,
Later began to receive criticism over what many saw as creative neglect. The fact that her guest-hosting stints attracted the show's largest audience in nine months in the key adult 18-49 demographic was NBC's main consideration in hiring Garrett on a permanent basis by signing her to a one-year deal. Returning to the show's initial Bob Costas-led one-on-one interview format but this time with a studio audience, Garrett debuted on January 31, 2000 by interviewing
current Oscar nominee for
best supporting actor Michael Clarke Duncan, For the rest of her debut week, Garrett welcomed guests
Reba McEntire and
Lenny Kravitz, the latter of whom was announced in the press as "Garrett's brother", although it would eventually be revealed the two are not blood relatives but lifelong friends who grew up together in New York City. Assuming that going forward Garrett will be more spontaneous, challenging, and interesting when she's talking to someone with whom she doesn't have a history, the reviewer also recalled Costas's "obvious preparation and research" as something Garrett should aim for. Averaging 1.3 million viewers since October 2000, the program was canceled in December with the final episode airing on January 18, 2001, just as Garrett's deal with the network expired. Garrett became an on-air personality for the
TV Guide Channel as it began interspersing previews and reviews of upcoming TV programs with hosted interstitials. Around this time, NBC began to negotiate with
Carson Daly to take over the
Later timeslot, but this would not happen for well over a year.
2001–2002: Later presents SCTV Following the end of
Laters run, the time slot was once again used to showcase time- and content-edited repeats of
SCTV. A new voice-over introduction by Rita Sever presented the program as "
Later presents...SCTV", but the series was otherwise identical to the syndicated
SCTV repeats that had been airing for years. In 2001, NBC announced that
MTV VJ Carson Daly would be the new host of
Later. However, as the new format was being developed ahead of Daly taking over the time slot in January
2002, the network chose to retire the
Later name; the show instead premiered as
Last Call with Carson Daly, which would run under several formats throughout its 17-year run. The program ended in September 2019 and was replaced by
A Little Late with Lilly Singh, hosted by the
content creator/comedian; it ran until June 3, 2021, at which point NBC gave the 12:35 a.m. timeslot once occupied by
Later back to its affiliates. ==See also==