Russell Brand Talks Improvements to Late Night Series ‘BrandX’

Wearing no shoes (due to a rug burn from a recent bout of “kicky boxing”) and sipping green juice, Russell Brand likened the experience of fielding questions from members of the Television Critics Association to being situated in purgatory, “where you don’t entirely know where the voices are coming from.”

 

Brand took the Beverly Hilton stage to answer questions about his new late night show “BrandX” on FX, which takes a humorous and comprehensive perspective of the news, with a more “optimistic, less cynical approach to sort of current affairs,” he explained.

 

Addressing John Landgraf’s earlier announcement during an executive session on Saturday that the series is returning for another 7 eps, with some modifications, Brand said that the next iteration will look more like a conventional late night show, with guests every week. “A lot of that visual grammar is necessary,” he added, because it works.

 

The first part will consist of a monologue, the second will be guest-oriented and the third will focus on “analysis and audience interaction,” he said. “I think that there will be a lot more lightness, a lot more chaos,” adding that he’d like to work up to “’Daily Show’”-meets-Tom Green” territory.

 

Brand spoke appreciatively of FX, which has given him freedom to try new things—a sentiment echoed throughout the network’s panels. “I like doing this because it’s very immediate. And FX have such a wonderful attitude towards artists and executive producer/stars that you feel like they’ve got a lot of freedom.”