The world of late night is already gearing up for a big shift with the move of Stephen Colbert from Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report to CBS’ The Late Show, succeeding David Letterman. But tonight, Craig Ferguson has announced at the taping of his show that he will be leaving his gig as host of CBS’ The Late Late Show at the end of the year.
Ferguson’s contract was set to expire at the same time as Letterman’s, and Colbert’s hiring reportedly triggered a payment to Ferguson for being passed over, pursuant to his contract. This leaves a vacant spot at 12:35e/p at the outset of 2015. Though Letterman has been vague about the timing of his exit, Ferguson’s plan to leave after the holidays might suggest that the passing of The Late Show torch will happen sooner rather than later in 2015.
Some are speculating that Chelsea Handler might be in the running for this slot, especially due to some photos posted by Handler with some CBS paperwork. The pairing of Handler and Colbert might be an odd one if the speculation proved true, but reports about Handler negotiating with Netflix for a new show might indicate that the speculation is misdirected. Whoever CBS gets to follow Colbert would most likely skew younger, the way Ferguson did when following Letterman. Among those who tested for the slot before Ferguson got it were Michael Ian Black and Aisha Tyler; those two could potentially be in the running again.
HT: Deadline
I LOVE CRAIG!!!! His show is the only decent program on tv and even if it will keep me from getting no sleep, I make sure that I watch his show. I hope he can do another show of his own at some point. I love that he is a punk from the 80’s like I am and his humor is just like mine. Better than old and young fuckers that have no real sense of humor due to no personality. HE NEEDS TO KEEP DOING A SHOW!
JOEL FUCKING MCHALE!
NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First Matt Smith regenerates, now Craig is leaving…
My televisual world is crumbling around me…
Who gets custody of Secretariat?
Craig has been a great change of pace in the late night arena and will be very hard to replace. I’m glad he is leaving on his own terms and can’t wait to see what he does next. I’d love to see Chris Hardwick take over the show, but what would happen to the podcast and Talking Dead? If Craig taught us nothing else: don’t settle for status quo. CBS should go after some one that is not a middle aged white male.
Chelsea Handler is not even close to being funny. I rather see shit covered screen than her be anywhere near a microphone.
List of people better suited for the Late Late Show:
Craig Ferguson – Renew his contract CBS – Nothing funny now, HIMYM is gone
CONAN O’BRIEN!
Chris Hardwick
Joel McHale
Andy Richter
Rotting corpse of Johnny Carson
Danny Glover
The entire cast of Golden Girls (Dig them up, Betty)
Joe Biden (He’s not doing anything anyway, just let him think out loud)
Doug Benson
Amy Poehler
Nick Offerman
Chris Pratt
Just stay the fuck away from Handler –
Paul F. Tompkins anyone?
@logan
WHY ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS??
I’d love to watch scott steiner host The late late show for the hell of it!
Anybody BUT that talentless c–t Chelsea.
Scott Steiner of the Steiner brothers.
Hard and Phirm Late Night has a nice ring to it ,eh?
Does anyone else feel like Aziz Ansari might be a perfect fit?
Parks and Rec ends next spring and with enough notice, Tom could be given an early exit just like Chris and Pam this season or at least a diminished role in 2015 episodes.
For the 12:30 time slot, he’d bring much needed energy to keep up at that time of night. Plus, seeing past interviews he’s been apart of, I feel like his interviews would be very unique and suit Colbert’s style quite well.
Jesus Fucking Christ, Jake. Your writing has not improved.
You might be a lost cause. If English is not your first language, that’s your only excuse.
Or maybe you have a learning disability. If so, I apologize.
http://youtu.be/dZJ640XP0yU
this is a tragedy
There’s only one man for this job. Jimmy F***in’ Pardo!
No-o-o-o-o-o-o! Craig is unique on TV. No one could quite fill his shoes, nor those of his sidekick, Geoff.
My choices would be Chris Hardwick, then John Oliver ( replace one accent with another).
Mother F*#KER!!!!! I love Ferguson. Why? Because his show is not like any other late night show!!!!! He’s not even gone and I already miss him and Geoff. Seriously… what other host and time slot can pull off what he does?
I vote for Hardwick. Nice, long term gig for him, and he can do short interviews and then just go record a long form interview for the podcast. Get Matt and Jonah to be head writers. Would be pretty awesome.
If CBS got Aisha Tyler, I’d probably start watching late night talk shows. Or at least that particular late night talk show.
Bound to happen, after all “Tomorrow’s just a future yesterday.” All things come to an end, even the good ones.
He will be missed. Such a rare sight on television to see true creativity, joy and honesty expressed so purely. One can only hope he will continue breaking the molds of television somewhere else, and that he’ll drag the skeleton and horse along for the ride.
Noooooooo!
Why not our nerdist overlord, Chris Hardwick? We already know he appeals to much of the same crowd that Colbert does (see the success of @Midnight), knows how to host the hell out of a show, and has a solid comedic background. Colbert/Hardwick would be a hell of a 1-2 punch for CBS. I’d watch the shit out of that.
Mr. Saget, are you free?
i would TOTALLY be on board for AISHA TYLER…it’s about time they represented that much-neglected demographic of “sexy, funny, black comedienne with pop culture savvy and mad gaming skills and comic book knowledge”
Well, I guess I can sell my TV now.
D.L. Hughley tested too. Maybe he’d still be interested.
Then again, I would think it’d be someone so weirdly out of left field to replace Ferguson that it makes everyone just say “Whuh?”
“Intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism.”
A legend amongst talk show host and Whovians. I watch his show daily and he will be missed. There’s no one on TV like him and I hope he ends up on another daily/weekly show because I need Craig on my TV.