{"id":430548,"date":"2026-01-22T18:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430548\/"},"modified":"2026-01-22T18:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T18:55:08","slug":"craig-ferguson-on-whether-hed-return-to-late-night-why-host-scrabble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/430548\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Ferguson on Whether He’d Return to Late Night, Why Host Scrabble"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s been more than a decade since Craig Ferguson<\/a> left his perch as host of CBS\u2019 \u201cThe Late Late Show,\u201d and he honestly doesn\u2019t give the late night world much thought these days. That\u2019s especially true when asked about his former employer\u2019s decision to cancel \u201cThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert\u201d and get out of the talk game all together.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is the truth of me in late night television,\u201d Ferguson recently told Variety. \u201cI didn\u2019t really watch late night television before I did it, and then I certainly didn\u2019t watch it while I was doing it, and then afterwards, I don\u2019t really watch it. So, it\u2019s not something I feel qualified to really either predict or comment on, to be honest. I mean, I did my thing, but I don\u2019t know that my thing was ever really part of that thing. Do you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Ferguson is being a little cheeky: He has thoughts. Ferguson spent ten seasons as host of \u201cThe Late Late Show,\u201d taking over for Craig Kilborn in 2005 and exiting at the end of 2014. James Corden took over after that, but upon Corden\u2019s departure in 2023, \u201cThe Late Late Show\u201d was retired. Now, with CBS ending Colbert\u2019s show in May, that franchise (which launched with David Letterman in 1993) will soon be gone as well. A few diehard Ferguson fans last year tried to float the comedian\u2019s name as perhaps a way for CBS to stay in the talk game \u2014 but Ferguson isn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s not something that I\u2019m into,\u201d he said. \u201cYou only do it two days in Shawshank, right? First day and last day. I\u2019m very proud of that talk show I did. I\u2019m really glad I did it. I think we hit the ball more often than we missed. But I don\u2019t feel I need to do it again. It would almost make it not as valuable as it is to me, if I started doing it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFerguson\u2019s time on \u201cLate Late Show\u201d lives on via bootleg clips on YouTube. A fan account, \u201cLate Late Show w\/ Craig Ferguson Archive,\u201d has received as many as a million views \u2014 not bad for a feed that Ferguson, producer Worldwide Pants or CBS have no control over.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt\u2019s weird, because I think I\u2019m probably less connected to that old show than people who watched it a lot,\u201d Ferguson said. \u201cThat was then and now is now. I\u2019m glad I did it, I\u2019m very proud of it. But I haven\u2019t lived with it on a day-to-day basis for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tInstead, Ferguson has wound up on a bit of a different TV track over the past decade: Game show and panel show host. In recent years he hosted the syndicated \u201cCelebrity Name Game,\u201d History\u2019s \u201cJoin or Die With Craig Ferguson\u201d and ABC\u2019s \u201cThe Hustler.\u201d Now, he has joined The CW\u2019s primetime gamer \u201cScrabble<\/a>\u201d for its Season 2 (replacing Raven-Symon\u00e9), which premieres Thursday night.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI\u2019ve been playing Scrabble since I was a kid,\u201d he said. \u201cI suspect it\u2019s the reason why I can actually read given the given the way that my education went. So I was very keen that we got a TV version of Scrabble that I thought did justice to the game. What I did notice is how competitive Scrabble players are. I used to think I was good at Scrabble, but these people are great at Scrabble.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFerguson said he is drawn to the improv, freestyle nature of hosting a game show like \u201cScrabble.\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s about the fact that there\u2019s really no prep,\u201d he said. \u201cI go and I play the game with the contestants, and the only information I have is the contestants\u2019 names and how to pronounce them correctly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, Ferguson admits that he enjoys interacting so much with the contestants that tapings run long and most of that banter has to end up on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cA TV hour is around 44 minutes [before commercials] and it takes us, easily, double that, with me talking smack and BS about this, that and the next thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI just play, and then whatever has to be taken out in order to the game, it\u2019s ordered. I suspect there will be a lot of B-roll and outtakes that will become available pretty soon, once the show starts airing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFans of Ferguson\u2019s offbeat humor \u2014 on \u201cThe Late Late Show\u201d he had a robot sidekick, pantomime horse and puppets, after all \u2014 will be pleased to see the comedian open each episode of \u201cScrabble\u201d dancing to the show\u2019s theme song. \u201cThere has to be more dancing,\u201d he said. \u201cHowever, I will say this, people who like Scrabble seem to be unconcerned about how much dancing I do in the \u2018Scrabble\u2019 game show.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMeanwhile, even though he\u2019s not looking to go back to talk TV, Ferguson did launch his podcast, \u201cJoy, a Podcast, Hosted by Craig Ferguson,\u201d in 2023. The show started with regular guests, and he\u2019s still doing interviews \u2014 but only if they\u2019re in person. \u201cI think I\u2019m probably as good as anyone who does Zoom call interviews, but in person, I think maybe I\u2019m a little better than most people who do it,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I kind of feel like, play to your strength. I enjoy it much more when you\u2019re in a room talking with someone. So what I do now with a podcast is, if I\u2019m away on work, I\u2019ll just record a half hour of me answering questions from people who watch the podcast, and then that\u2019s the podcast. If I can\u2019t have a guest in the studio, then I\u2019ll just talk directly to the people who watch it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNext month, Ferguson hits the road for the next leg of his current standup tour, \u201cPants on Fire,\u201d which kicks off Feb. 5 in Charlotte, N.C. But he\u2019s still not sure if he\u2019ll turn it into a TV special.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI don\u2019t know if I want to make any more stand up specials,\u201d he said. \u201cI made one a couple of years ago, and it turned out OK, and I was happy with it. But the thing is about making a special, I always think that you do it, and then if you ever look at it later, you go, \u2018Ah, fuck, I could have made that better by doing that.\u2019 Jay Leno has never made a stand up special in 50 years, and I don\u2019t think he ever will. I kind of get it. I like the doing of standup, I don\u2019t know that I need to film it. Maybe I will. I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cScrabble,\u201d produced by Hasbro Entertainment, The CW, Mattel Television Studios and Lionsgate Alternative Television, premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on The CW. David Hurwitz is showrunner and executive producer, while Raven-Symon\u00e9 is EP, along with Gabriel Marano, David Garfinkle and Chynna Weiss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been more than a decade since Craig Ferguson left his perch as host of CBS\u2019 \u201cThe Late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,225453,134,225454,225455,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-430548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-craig-ferguson","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-scrabble","13":"tag-the-late-late-show-with-craig-ferguson","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}