The late night shows debuted their holiday decor this week.
You can tell a lot about a host by his tinsel.
Dave, Jimmy and Jimmy have gone the more traditional route — the scatter of lights, poinsettias, a tree or two. Their sets look festive in the way you might expect. Heck, they may be using last year’s decorations.
Who would notice?
You will definitely remember Conan’s. His approach to trimming the set this year is more akin to projectile vomiting. His stage makes Clark Griswold’s house look dark and neglected. Dinosaurs. Giant sandwiches. A robot rabbi.
It’s gawdy and fabulous, but people with pacemakers best beware.
In sharp contrast, Craig Ferguson’s stage still suffers from bad lighting and leaks from the rain. He seems filled with the Christmas spirit, but his budget extends only to a small, lighted desktop tree — that he plugged in with a flourish — and a Santa cap for Geoff Peterson, his robot skeleton sidekick.
Funny. After watching both shows, I realized I preferred the simplicity of Craig’s display. It has that authentic Charlie Brown quality, whereas Conan’s feels like the need to show off…to splatter his ego and budget all over the place to prove that he is back in the game.
Rudolph syndrome, no doubt.
Chill, CoCo.
