Shortly after David Letterman announced his retirement, Stephen Colbert won his seat to succeed the long-time host of The Late Show. Just prior to that, Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show correspondent Jon Oliver left the Comedy Central for HBO, hosting his own weekly show Last Week Tonight with Jon Oliver. And now, after ten years as host of Late Late Show, Craig Ferguson is leaving as host after ten years on CBS.
“CBS and I are not getting divorced, we are ‘consciously uncoupling’, but we will still spend holidays together and share custody of the fake horse and robot skeleton, both of whom we love very much.”
Leaving in December, the move isn’t a huge surprise to many who are in the industry. With Colbert moving to replace Letterman, whose show is right before Ferguson’s, it was believed that the Scottish comedian would leave the show. Celebrity Name Game, a game show based on the board game Identity Crisis, already has Ferguson set to host.
Ferguson was a different kind of entertainer, not seen on the usual shows. His co-host was a robot, he had no band, and he often had his opening monologue be personal anecdotal stories instead of the usual topical one-liners.
A recovering alcoholic, Ferguson was deeply sensitive to issues of struggling celebrities, and often defended them and refused to make jokes at their expense. Famously, he gave a 12 minute opening during Britney Spears’ famous meltdown several years ago, rejecting the notion of jokes and speaking from the heart of his own struggles. Another opening, struck a nerve as he gave a heartfelt eulogy to his father, a topic any other show host out there wouldn’t ever touch.
Craig Feruson’s sincere and quirky humor will be missed come December, but you can still catch him as the host of Celebrity Name Game, set to air around the same time.
