Poor Craig Kilborn. He’s like The Baxter of television show hosts, warming up the seats of both The Daily Show and The Late Late Show and engaging in a friendly if not exactly passionate relationship with American audiences, only to see them fall madly in love with his successors, once he was fired for saying his boss would blow him if he let her/quit because he thought he could make a go of being a movie star.
But much like the inoffensive but just not-quite-right ex-love we’ve all had, some of us still harbor affection for Craig Kilborn, which is why it’s nice to see he’s finally getting back into the game with The Kilborn File, a talk show he’ll be hosting in select markets (New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Phoenix, Detroit, and Austin), beginning June 28 on local Fox affiliates. Kilborn says the show will feature guests—including a “power panel,” whatever that means—that will help him “weigh in on the issues of the day,” although he balks at comparisons to that dastardly usurper Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show, saying,“I'm not sure it'll be as political as that. I don't see it going in that direction. It might be less politics and more pop culture." So, more like Chelsea Lately, then? Whatever. We’re just happy he’s working, and not hosting this thing in his basement, King Of Comedy-style.