Craig Ferguson announced on his show last night that he’s leaving the hosting gig at the end of the year. Ferguson has hosted Late Late Show since 2005, infusing it with some of late night’s most delightfully weird concepts such as challenging guests to try for a Golden Mouth Organ award, Secretariat the dancing pantomime horse, and his robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson. Variety reports that Ferguson wanted to announce his departure as early as last summer but held off until now, and taking over for Letterman was never something he wanted to do:
“I had no desire — none — to do that job. I could barely keep it together at 12:30, never mind 11:30. Nobody wants to hear it. It’s so bizarre. People want it to be Jay and Dave or Jay and Conan or some kind of big story. That’s not me, that’s not what I want. I think what happens is that certain people want you to want it, and they want you to not get it. If that makes ‘em happy, well…It really wasn’t what I aspired to. Doing this job wasn’t something I aspired to, either. I kind of fell into this.”
No word yet on who CBS is considering to take over Ferguson’s spot next year, though CBS head honcho Leslie Moonves recently told The New York Times that “a woman would be great” for the role. Ferguson already has at least one new hosting gig lined up on the game show Celebrity Name Game, which is set to premiere this fall.
Watch Ferguson’s announcement on last night’s show in the above clip, then click through to read his official statement:
Ferguson’s official statement:
“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.”
