'THE LATE LATE SHOW' Kilborn's successor is likely to be 1 of 3 choices

The talk-show host must also be a listen host.
By DAVID BIANCULLI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
CBS is more than halfway through its on-air tryout period testing replacements for Craig Kilborn on "The Late Late Show."
But unless the network, David Letterman and his production company pull out a ringer, the nationwide audition process may have crowned a winner already.
After watching three weeks' worth of guest hosts, I have a definite opinion. The next host of "The Late Late Show" should be one of these three: Craig Ferguson, D.L. Hughley or Michael Gibbons.
Here's why.
The successor to Kathie Lee Gifford on the syndicated talk show "Live! With Regis and Kathie Lee" was found via on-air tryouts, and anyone who tuned in could make informed opinions about talent and chemistry -- Regis Philbin and Kelly Ripa, yes; Reege and Jillian Barberie, no.
With "Late Late Show," because of Kilborn's sudden departure, guest hosts have had to come in and adapt to the current format.
When you're on a pit crew changing a flat tire, there's no time to reinvent the wheel. The things to look for in a new host, then, are twofold: personality that translates well to television, and an interviewing style that's both natural and inquisitive.
You want a talk host who's also a listen host, who's not just thinking of the next preplanned question or pouncing with his or her own spotlight-stealing punch line.
The "Late Late Show" audience, over the years, has embraced both the hot off-the-cuff honesty of Tom Snyder and the cool, ironically detached playfulness of Kilborn.
Over the last three weeks, the series of guest hosts presented has drawn slightly more viewers than Kilborn drew a year ago, so the audience is staying put during the nationwide audition process.
Paring it down
For the next two weeks, the guest hosts are one-night shots only, and it's reasonable to presume that if a new host is indeed coming from the on-air tryout process, that person has been tested already. That allows producers -- and viewers, and critics -- a chance to winnow the field.
Drew Carey and Adam Carolla?
Their comic personalities are well-formed already and didn't present the range necessary to host this type of show. Michael Ian Black? Too smug, and so reflexively ironic he makes Kilborn look as sincere as John Boy Walton. Tom Arnold? He's funnier -- but he's a lot funnier and better-suited elsewhere. And Ana Gasteyer, while displaying a very pleasant personality, was a bit stiff during interviews.
The potential keepers are Ferguson, who played the boss on "The Drew Carey Show" and was an impressively glib interviewer and natural TV talent; Hughley, who not only seems comfortable behind a talk-show desk, but seems to enjoy being there; and Gibbons, the "Late Late Show" head writer, who has made the transition easily from making the writers' room laugh to stepping out into the spotlight as a total unknown.
The last person to do that in late night? Conan O'Brien.
"The Late Late Show" could do worse -- and with any three of these men, it'll probably do just fine.