Question about "LLS w/Craig Ferguson"

A week or so ago, I noticed that "The Late, Late Show with Craig
Ferguson" apparently did some creative editing with one of its recent
musical guests, Fiona Apple. Fiona and her band appeared on the show
in February and performed a song. Then, it seems, they later filmed
another song, which Craig used at the end of an apparently all-new
episode just about four weeks later. The band was dressed in the same
clothes, and wires across the stage were in identical places. It was
definitely a case of two songs recorded on the same night.

So, my question, how often does Craig (or any talk show) do things like
that, where what you see in apparent new episode isn't exactly all-new?
For the record, the second Fiona appearance was well publicized in
the listings for the week, so it wasn't a case of a last-minute guest
cancellation or a show running short of content.

I guess that Dave, Jay and the others certainly could do this a lot --
recording musical guests at their convenience for later use as needed

Barry Margolin...

I'm sure similar things are done quite often.

For instance, the week before Christmas they had Craig singing a carol
with a different celebrity each night. I'm sure they were taped when
the celebrity was previously a guest, rather than having them come in
specially just for the bit.

Sometimes guest interviews on The Daily Show are taped on previous days.
They've occasionally let on that it's a pretaping -- it's an actor
promoting a movie that opened the weekend between taping and airing, so
they have to pretend they know how well it did.

Ronnie...

I saw the Craig Kilborn show live in the stuiod once, and they recorded
two songs by Cracker. The second Cracker song was shown a couple of
months later.

They knew what they were doing beforehand, because it was around Xmas
time and they removed the Xmas decorations when filming the second song.

seapig...

I've never heard of that being done, but it makes a lot of sense. It's
certainly more convenient for the artist, than having to come back just
to perform one more song.

fruitbat...

True, but it ruins the whole "we liked them so much that we're having
them back" vibe.

I'm sure some people will get upset that they're somehow being
deceived. But, as long as it's a different song, it's a new
performance, ("new" in the TV sense, as in never before aired), and I
don't have a problem with it.

fruitbat...

I don't have a problem with them calling it "all-new", since you're
right about it not having aired, but I guess I'd prefer more
authenticity. It's not that I'm worried about being deceived, but just
that I like feeling like I'm watching a recording of a single
experience I could have had live, not one cobbled together from two
different shows months apart.

Not that I watch any of those shows for the musical guests anyway, so
it doesn't bother me much. I'd be more disappointed to find out that
they were using interviews recorded during other shows.