Below is the "Michael Naidus Farewell Q & A" that appeared (briefly) on the CBS website. It was lost when they switched over from "Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson" to just "Late Late Show" in Jan 2015. Luckily, I had made a pdf copy before it went poof.

An Exclusive Farewell Q&A With Late Late Show Producer Michael Naidus

He’s Worked With Craig Ferguson For Years, These Are His Stories

POSTED ON DEC 23, 201 4 03:35PM

When longtime host Craig Ferguson said goodnight for the last time on CBS’s The Late Late Show, it was the capstone to a 10-­year run that included countless laughs, inappropriate jabs, and innovative comedy segments.

Producer Michael Naidus was a key player in the show’s successes over the years, and he agreed to answer some of CBS.com’s questions about what it was like to work with Craig, the unbelievable story behind the song that booted up the final episode, and some of his favorite moments on set over the years.

What do you want the fans of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson to know?

“We want them to join us in celebrating the ten years we had on CBS, not in mourning the end of those ten years. We genuinely had fun making these shows and we feel lucky to have been given a platform for all the wonderful nonsense that Craig created for us, and

for them.

And also to know that they mattered to us – pretty much every tweet they sent to Craig,

every email they sent to the show, every letter that reached our desks was read. Their voices were heard and their passion was, and is, appreciated.”

What will you miss most about the show?

“Two things – the 45 minutes on the stage taping the show every day, which were joyous to experience, as anyone who attended a taping can attest to. And the people who went into the trenches with me and made something out of nothing, often with nothing, for a

decade. They made me look better at everything than I actually am.”

What’s the story behind the music during the finale’s intro?

“Craig discovered a homemade music video of the song “Bang Your Drum” on the Internet about six months ago. It was recorded on phones by a group of young musicians called Dead Man Fall from Craig’s hometown of Cumbernauld, just outside Glasgow.

We all immediately loved the song and hatched a plan to bring the band to the U.S. to play it on The Late Late Show during our final week of shows. We reached out to the band and they were as excited as we were. Then there was a little bit of a snag; the band’s application for performance visas so they could come to Los Angeles to be on our show was denied by the U.S. government.

At that point, we regrouped. We decided to ask a lot of our showbiz friends to record bits and pieces of the song to make our own music video, worked with the band to get their approval to edit the song to make room for all the celebrity cameos, and began putting

together the music video that aired on the finale.

Most of those videos were shot on a green screen that we tucked away behind the set; others were sent to us by our friends from their own phones. Later in the process, we decided to add a live performance element, and that’s how Craig ended up on top of his

desk singing vocals with a backup band comprised of musicians we’d worked with many times on the show — including the Sex Pistols’ guitarist Steve Jones.”

What was your favorite joke or moment with Craig?

“I have had a lot of favorite moments. Here’s one — one day, we were filming on location in Paris. Towards the end of the day, we were filming on a bridge where many romantic people had attached padlocks to the railings to proclaim their undying love for one

another.

All day long, pretty much everything had gone wrong. The weather was iffy, the cameramen were having trouble understanding English, there was confusion with the local police about permits, wardrobe and prop trucks were stuck in traffic. It was a rough

moment on an exhausting day, and everyone was on edge.

Craig came over and asked me what the plan was and, the truth is, we intentionally had no plan for the location, just for Craig to ad­lib something lovely — that was often our plan. Then I watched as he morphed in one instant from tired traveler into brilliant

performer that he is, and he made not one but three beautiful segments on that bridge.”

How do you feel when Craig incorporates you into his jokes on the show?

“I trust his instincts that the viewers like it; I personally try not to watch!”

Is there anything we don’t know about the show or about Craig?

“Yes.”