Shows like Friday Night with Jonathan Ross

These half-hour specials showcased some of the best up-and-coming comedians of the moment. The show was a pivotal stepping stone for many of today's stand-up stars.

Based on Scott Aukerman’s popular podcast of the same name, COMEDY BANG! BANG! cleverly riffs on the well-known format of the late night talk show, infusing celebrity appearances and comedy sketches with a tinge of the surreal. In each episode, Aukerman engages his guests with unfiltered and improvisational lines of questioning, punctuated by banter and beats provided by bandleader, one-man musical mastermind Reggie Watts, to reinvent the traditional celebrity interview. Packed with character cameos, filmic shorts, sketches and games set amongst an off-beat world, COMEDY BANG! BANG! delivers thirty minutes of absurd laugh-loaded fun featuring some of the biggest names in comedy.

Host Zach Galifianakis conducts comical celebrity interviews sitting with his guests between two potted ferns on a sparse set, in the awkward style of low-budget community access cable channels.

Each week, Jefferies tackles the week’s top stories from behind his desk and travels the globe to far-off locations to provide an eye opening look at hypocrisy around the world. Featuring interviews, international field pieces, and man on the ground investigations, Jim tackles the news of the day with no-bulls**t candor, piercing insight and a uniquely Aussie viewpoint.

Da Ali G Show is a British satirical television series created by and starring English comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. In the series, Baron Cohen plays three unorthodox journalists: faux-streetwise poseur Ali G, Kazakh reporter Borat Sagdiyev, and gay Austrian fashion enthusiast Brüno Gehard. These characters conduct real interviews with unsuspecting people, many of whom are celebrities, high-ranking government officials, and other well-known figures, during which they are asked absurd and ridiculous questions.

Each week celebrity guests join Irish comedian Graham Norton to discuss what's being going on around the world that week. The guests poke fun and share their opinions on the main news stories. Graham is often joined by a band or artist to play the show out.

Stepping into the late-late slot vacated by David Letterman, Conan O'Brien stars in a show that far outdoes its competition in sheer strangeness. Along with the celebrity interviews and musical numbers typical of late-night talk shows, this program make frequent use of odd walk-on characters and frequent "visits" from celebrity guests.

The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan. It was replaced in September 1971 by the CBS Sunday Night Movie, which ran only one season and was eventually replaced by other shows. In 2002, The Ed Sullivan Show was ranked #15 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish American comedian Craig Ferguson, who is the third regular host of the Late Late Show franchise. It follows Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup, airing weekdays in the US at 12:37 a.m. It is taped in front of a live studio audience from Monday to Friday at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California, directly above the Bob Barker Studio. It is produced by David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Incorporated and CBS Television Studios. Since becoming host on January 3, 2005, after Craig Kilborn and Tom Snyder, Ferguson has achieved the highest ratings since the show's inception in 1995. While the majority of the episodes focus on comedy, Ferguson has also addressed difficult subject matter, such as the deaths of his parents, and undertaken serious interviews, such as one with Desmond Tutu, which earned the show a 2009 Peabody Award.

Jerry takes his comedy pals out for coffee in a selection of his classic automobiles. Larry David sums it up best when he says, 'You've finally made a show about nothing.'

Each week Bill Maher surrounds himself with a panel of guests which include politicians, actors, comedians, musicians and the like to discuss what's going on in the world.

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show airing weeknights at 12:35 am Eastern/11:35 pm Central on NBC in the United States. The hour-long show premiered on March 2, 2009, and is hosted by actor, comedian and performer Jimmy Fallon, an alumnus of Saturday Night Live. Hip hop/neo soul band The Roots serve as the show's house band, and Steve Higgins is the show's announcer. The third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman, the program originates from NBC Studio 6B in the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Center in New York City. The show typically opens with a brief monologue from Fallon, followed by a comedy "desk piece," as well as prerecorded segments and audience competitions. The next segment is devoted to a celebrity interview, with guests ranging from actors and musicians to media personalities and political figures. The show then closes with either a musical or comedy performance. The show frequently employs digital media into its comedy, which has become crucial to its success. Fallon has been appointed to become the next host of The Tonight Show, where he will succeed the current host Jay Leno at the conclusion of the 2014 Winter Olympics, with fellow SNL alum Seth Meyers slated to replace Fallon.