WAMC's Ian Pickus and resident quizzer Mike Nothnagel are staying up past their bedtime this week.
Last week's challenge
Start with a six-letter word ending in M that means "tattle". Replace the M with IT and the result will spell a three-word phrase that might describe someone who gets tattled on. What is the word and what is the phrase?
Answer: INFORM, IN FOR IT
THIS WEEK'S CATEGORY: LATE NIGHT TELEVISION
On-air questions: On this date in 2005, longtime Tonight Show host Johnny Carson died at age 79. Carson had had a mostly quiet retirement after stepping down as host after 30 years on the air, but reportedly still sent jokes to David Letterman on occasion. And since 2015 will be a year of change in late night television, today’s show is all about late night.
1. Since the Tonight Show began in 1954, there have been only six hosts. Who had the shortest tenure, with just 146 episodes?
2. Which former Montana State basketball player and ESPN anchor has hosted both Comedy Central’s Daily Show and the Late Late Show on CBS?
3. Which current host of NBC’s Late Night, who had a different job in the same building for 12 years, said “the trickiest part of this job the first week was just figuring out what to do with my hands?”
4. “New Rules” is typically the closing segment on the late night show hosted by which comedian, who has hosted shows on Comedy Central, ABC and his current HBO?
5. Which late night host, who is shedding a character but gaining a new network show this year, appeared in a filmed version of Stephen Sondheim’s Company?
Extra credit
1. Chevy Chase, Joan Rivers and Wanda Sykes all had short-lived late night shows for which network?
2. Several episodes of Louie CK’s FX series dealt with his preparation for an audition to replace David Letterman. Which idiosyncratic filmmaker trained Louie for the audition?
This week's challenge
Start with the name of a powerful late night television executive at NBC. Rearrange the letters in this person’s name and you can spell a two-word phrase (4,9) that describes what a wayward sailor might be looking for. What is the phrase?
ANSWERS
On-air questions
1. Conan O’Brien (O’Brien was replaced by his predecessor Jay Leno and now stars in a TBS late night show.)
2. Craig Kilborn (Kilborn gave late night a third stab with a short-lived The Kilborn File on FOX.)
3. Seth Meyers (former SNL writer and cast member)
4. Bill Maher
5. Stephen Colbert
Extra credit
1. FOX
2. David Lynch
