With the cancellation of The Old Grey Whistle Test, The Late Show featured music performances, live or pre-recorded, including Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen, Public Enemy, Joni Mitchell, The Stone Roses, Dick Dale, The Cramps, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Fall, R.E.M., Little Village, Jane's Addiction and Jeff Buckley.
The forty and sometimes fifty-minute programmes were presented mostly live from a bare black set in Lime Grove Studio D until 14 June 1991, when it transferred to BBC Television Centre in White City, west London.
The regular format was for a single presenter to provide links for a number of packaged features and interviews or panel discussion in the studio.
Later in the programme's run a regular panel discussion – Late Review – was introduced looking at new films, books and plays and other arts and cultural events.
Regular contributors to this included Tony Parsons, Tom Paulin and Allison Pearson, and it was chaired by The Guardian journalist Mark Lawson.