While some are already casting a new late-night battle -- Craig Kilborn vs. Conan O'Brien -- nobody behind "The Late Late Show" is looking at it that way.
"We're certainly not focused on Conan," said Rob Burnett, CEO of Worldwide Pants Inc., which is producing Kilborn's show.Of course, part of that may be because they know they have no realistic chance of beating NBC's "Late Night." They're going to have to build almost from ground zero, having largely abandoned Tom Snyder's audience for a younger crowd. And, while "Late Night" is seen in some 95 percent of the country right after "The Tonight Show," CBS' "Late Late Show" is cleared in its scheduled post-"Late Show" time slot in only about 60 percent of the country.
"There's no way we're going to beat Conan. Certainly not out of the box," Burnett said. "I know enough about late-night numbers to know that based on lead-ins . . . I don't think it's physically going to be possible for us to beat Conan."
And, according to Kilborn, there's no personal rivalry either.
"I know Conan," he said. "I actually had an impromptu dinner with him about three months ago. I was in a restaurant near where I live and he was there and I said, 'Hi.' And he sat down. Nice guy. Obviously a bright guy.
"As far as the ratings, I don't think we're necessarily competing against him -- we're just trying to, first, create our own show. He's been doing it for five years."