Friday Night With Jonathan Ross - Format

Format

The show was usually recorded in Studio TC4 at the BBC Television Centre in London. The house band 4 Poofs and a Piano provided musical backing. The show used to be recorded on a Thursday, but after his return from the Russell Brand incident, it was recorded on a Tuesday, leading to the show having much less topical humour. (Jonathan's Saturday morning Radio 2 show was also subjected to being recorded on a Friday after previously being live on the Saturday).

The house band consisted of Stephen de Martin, Ian Parkin, David Roper, and David Wickenden. Each episode they would wear identical t-shirts featuring the face of a guest at the cente. Every time a guest enters the studio, the band will perform a segment of a song, usually involving a reference to that particular guest. At the beginning of each show Jonathan Ross, would segue from his monologue with a homosexual innuendo about the group.

There have been a number of recurring themes on Friday Night. For instance, Ross often jokes about the age of veteran TV presenter Bruce Forsyth. This culminated in Forsyth appearing in the opening segment of the show broadcast on 30 November 2007, to supposedly take over as the show's presenter. Ross then appeared and called Tess Daly (Forsyth's co-host on Strictly Come Dancing) to supervise Forsyth safely out, again alluding to his age. Ross has also often made jokes about Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Paul McCartney. During a GMTV interview in October 2007, Mills complained about comments made by Ross. At the beginning of the show, between guests and during interviews Ross often recounted incidents involving his wife, children and pets. He also referred to items in the news and demonstrates amusing products. His guests were seen at the start of the show sitting in the green room and Ross preceded the introduction of each by asking the audience "shall I get my first/next guest out?". While interviewing a guest he usually chatted with the other guests in the green room.

At the end of the show, there was a musical performance from a performer or a group. There were rare occasions where the performer(s) are interviewed as well as then going on to play their song or sometimes songs, notably all three original members of proto-punk legends The Stooges (Iggy Pop, Ron Asheton and Scott Asheton) were interviewed together on the show in June 2007 before performing "I Wanna Be Your Dog". The American rock band The Killers performed on the show in May 2009. Lead vocalist Brandon Flowers previously had an interview with Ross before playing 4 songs with the band, the most that had ever been performed on the show with an interview, until Robbie Williams performed 6 songs on 6 November 2009 after being interviewed.