Gwinnett Daily Post

LAWRENCEVILLE -- A Georgia Gwinnett College student just wrapped up his first internship at the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and he's started a second stint with the program's production company.

Christopher Govan, a marketing major from Atlanta, moved to Los Angeles in fall 2011 to pursue the internship.

Govan, 27, begins each day by watching what Ferguson's television competitors talked about on their shows the previous night. "We also want to see what jokes they were telling so that Craig doesn't do the same ones," he said. "The news might drive a lot of things but you want your jokes to be original."

Interns like Govan also search websites for unusual news, historic dates or high-profile birthdays. They pass along the information to the writing team, who further research and develop a chosen few ideas. When the show airs, all of the interns tune in to see if any of their ideas made it through.

"That's happened to me a few times," Govan said. "It's pretty exciting."

He hopes his internship will lead to a paying job as a production assistant at the studio.

Govan said that one day, he'd like to have his own late night talk show. "Not as a host, but as an executive producer," he said. "And from this internship, I've seen that I can do it."