Ahead of The Late Late Show’s big debut on CBS tonight, Vulture sat down with bandleader Reggie Watts for an interview about why he took on the CBS gig and what he hopes to bring to late night. The most interesting revelation comes near the end of the interview when Watts reveals the name of his Late Late Show band:
What’s the musical setup going to be? Will you be by yourself like in Comedy Bang! Bang!, or do you have a full band?Yeah, I have a band. One of the things I stipulated was that I wanted to pick my own band, and they were cool with that, so I chose a pretty sick crew of weirdos to be a part of this journey. And yeah, they’re amazing. The name of the band is Karen.Karen? Like the woman’s name?Yeah, for now. That may change.So will they announce it at the top of the show as “Reggie Watts and Karenâ€?Correct. That’s mainly the reason why I wanted it. “Did you see Reggie and Karen last night? They were amazing.â€
Hopefully Watts and CBS decide not to change the name, because let’s be honest: Karen is the best late night band name of all time.