Craig Ferguson Leaving Late Late Show

[venture]

Meant to post last night but didn't get around to it. Yesterday was definitely a Sad Day in American (everybody), at least for those who follow his show. While it wasn't a shock at all, Craig announced he'll depart the late night show in December. For the last few months he's been going on and on about "10th season" and "it's been 10 years" without giving much away, but it just had that feeling that he was ready. Some will say it's because he didn't get the Late Show gig but Craig has been pretty straight forward for a few years that he doesn't want Dave's job. His show isn't like the other late night shows with it being pretty kooky and random. It has some of the basic elements but he tries to defy the genre as much as he can.

He had planned to step down in 2012 when Letterman's contract ended, but when Dave renewed he agreed to stay on. Letterman owns both shows right now. Craig then made it know that he was done after his contract expired in June of this year. From reports, CBS asked him to agree to a 6 month extension so they can find someone and transition the show - so he'll be around until December.

Craig official announcement last night was pretty straight forward and very honest - something he's always stuck to: Craig Ferguson Announces Plans to Step Down: Late Late Show Host To Sign off in December 2014 - The Late Late Show - CBS.com

Pretty sad day for those who don't like the typical atmosphere of late night TV, but he'll be doing the new game show later this fall and also he is doing the I F*cking Love Science show for the Science Channel later this year and has another program for Discovery in the works. I will say I'm glad he decided to leave before he wasn't fun for him anymore. Letterman I would say stuck around way too long.

Some stories on it:

A guide to Craig Ferguson?s weirdest traditions you?ll never see on late-night TV again after this year

Craig Ferguson Leaving ?Late Late Show? in December | Variety

The Variety interview was actually done awhile ago, but they were asked to hold the story until it was announced.

Some Clips...

[UrbanNebraska]

Ferguson is the best personality in late night. His show is all his wit and doesn't rely on the tried and true formula, which I love. Fallon has a great thing going, but his interviews are boring commercials for films and TV shows. Craig got more out of his guests and basically created a brand new 5 min rift on a single topic every single night instead of just rattling off one liners like everyone else. Conan and Fallon might be better comedic writers, but Ferguson is the best improviser in late night. I will miss him and Geoff.

[Snowman]

I never got into watching it regularly but tended to land on it when flipping through channels, kind of feels like all the old guard are moving on.

[venture]

I never got into watching it regularly but tended to land on it when flipping through channels, kind of feels like all the old guard are moving on.

Indeed. I always found it interesting that Peter Lassally, from Carson's Tonight Show, came out of retirement just to produce Craig's show and hand picked Craig to host it. It's not going to be the same when Craig moves on.

[SoonerDave]

I never watched this show with much regularity - just on too late - but when I did, I thought it was awfully fresh and fun, and what made it work was that Ferguson wasn't full of himself. Ironically, IMO at least, that's what made early-days Letterman work. He was just a smart-alec comic who did stuff he thought was stupid/funny/both, but somewhere along the way Dave lost his way and decided he, personally was waaay too important to ignore, became unfunny,and he lost me as a fan. And I'd watched him since his days at NBC. Ferguson worked by not getting in the way of the funny stuff, and I suspect I'd have been a regular viewer had he been on earlier

Late night talk/TV is mostly lost on me these days. The Carson era is gone, and these guys are all just pretenders.

[RadicalModerate]

Maybe they can convince Billy Connolly t' take his place?
He took an authentic trip down Route 66/Memory Lane on a trike, documented by Public Television.
(and managed, at one point, to tip it over . . .)
I'm not sure that "Scottish Frugality" is all that it's cracked up to be.
If I'm not mistaken, it can lead to "Presbyterianism".

(dang. that all sounded a bit anti-Scottish. bordering on racist? or at least Stereotypicalist? =)

All kidding aside . . . Craig Ferguson will be missed as a "Talk Show Host".
His show was like Monty Python for the New Millennium.

It was almost as if he had the gift of combining Johnny Carson, Ed McMahan and Don Rickles into the same "mash up". =)
Except he wasn't from Nebraska and didn't do magic "tricks".

"Whether Or Not [you] Liked It" . . . Sort of akin to Steve Allen doing a version of David Letterman predicting the weather. =)

He will be missed.