The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson

The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson is an American late-night talk show hosted by Scottish actor and comedian Craig Ferguson. This was the third iteration of the Late Late Show franchise, airing from January 3, 2005, to December 19, 2014. It followed the Late Show with David Letterman in the CBS late-night lineup, airing weekdays in the United States at 12:37 a.m. Taped in front of a live studio audience from Monday to Thursday (with two episodes taped on Thursdays) at CBS Television City in Los Angeles, California, directly above the Bob Barker Studio (Studio 33), it was produced by David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Incorporated and CBS Television Studios.
The Late Late Show franchise had previously aired as The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, then as The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. During the late 2004 transition of guest hosts following Craig Kilborn's departure, Craig Ferguson hosted a series of shows in October and November 2004, culminating in being announced on December 7, 2004, as the pick for new host. After launching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on January 3, 2005, Craig Ferguson achieved the highest ratings since the show's inception in 1995. While quirky comedy was emphasized in the majority of the episodes, Ferguson also addressed difficult subject matters, such as the deaths of his parents, his struggles with alcoholism, and commenting on national tragedies such as the September 11 attacks. Ferguson undertook serious interviews, such as one with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, which earned the show a 2009 Peabody Award.
Despite not initially having a sidekick, comedian and voice actor Josh Robert Thompson joined the show on April 5, 2010, and voiced Craig's sidekick Geoff Peterson, a robotic human skeleton. Often Geoff is referred to as a "robot skeleton", "gay skeleton robot" or "gay robot skeleton". Geoff is a radio-controlled animatronic robotic puppet skeleton with a metallic Mohawk hairstyle; he was designed and built by Grant Imahara of the TV show MythBusters. Geoff stayed as Craig's sidekick until the show's finale, after which Craig took Geoff home. Once Thompson began voicing Geoff Peterson, the format of the Late Late Show shifted from a more traditional formula (albeit with Ferguson's subversive humor) to a more loose, stripped-down and semi-improvisational comedy style in which Ferguson and Peterson would riff on various topics, often discarding prepared material and going over time limits.
On April 28, 2014, Ferguson announced that he would step down as host at the end of the year. The last episode aired on December 19, 2014. Afterwards, Late Late Show began a series of episodes with guest hosts; then the new permanent host James Corden began his iteration of the franchise on March 23, 2015.
The show often started with a cold opening that consisted of a short improvised monologue or commentary by Ferguson either as himself or involving his various puppets including Sid the Rabbit. Later openings of the show featured Ferguson talking or fighting with his "Gay Robot Skeleton" sidekick Geoff Peterson (voiced by Josh Robert Thompson), interacting with pantomime horse Secretariat, interrogating members of the studio audience, or presenting a musical number or a pre-taped sketch. The cold open was followed by the opening credits and a commercial break.
Following the break and his introduction by announcer Shadoe Stevens, Ferguson began with "Welcome to Los Angeles, California, welcome to the Late Late Show. I am your host, TV's Craig Ferguson. It's a great day for America, everybody!" as he threw pieces of candy to the audience and hit the side of the camera repeatedly. He then went into a free-form, largely ad-libbed monologue. After another commercial break, Ferguson was often seated behind his desk, where he'd ask Geoff "WHAT TIME IS IT GEOFF PETERSON!?" Mail theme songs then played, usually with the phrase "Ass Mode" in them as well as robots. Then Craig read and responded to viewer emails and (starting in February 2010) tweets from his proclaimed "robot skeleton army".
Generally, one or two celebrities were interviewed. Starting in 2008, Ferguson began each by dramatically ripping up note cards written for the interview, "signalling to the audience, and to the guest, that this conversation need not be rigidly managed". Sometimes, a stand-up comedian, cooking segment, or a musical guest performs, the latter of which was typically pre-taped.
Ferguson had many running gags. These included themed weeks such as "Crab Week", "Magic Week", and "Shark Week"; and the long running "photo of Paul McCartney" joke, wherein Ferguson called for a photo of McCartney that was actually a photo of actress Angela Lansbury and vice versa. The show occasionally used variations of the latter gag featuring other pairs of look-alike celebrities, such as Cher being shown as Marilyn Manson. The show also used short skits such as "Dear Aquaman" (in which Ferguson dressed as the superhero and gave advice), "Michael Caine in Space", and various absurdist Sean Connery impersonations, a not realistic Prince Charles coming in and out of commercial breaks, and longer sketches used more infrequently as the show progressed. Ferguson would often disregard censorship rules and swear, much to the chagrin of producer Michael Naidus; in response, Ferguson would jokingly call Naidus a racist. Profanities from Ferguson and his guests would be bleeped out by world flags and foreign terms.
The show ended with "What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?", a segment that started with an animation of an adorable kitten that sometimes got into silly situations, then meowed. Ferguson then removed his tie, put his feet on his desk (or, later on in the series, talked to Geoff or anyone else that showed up). He then summarized the preceding hour of TV. This was first used along with the 2008 set in and was last used in 2014. Later in the series, the show would end with "GP and The Fergs: Epilogue." The kitten then showed up in the bottom-left corner of the screen with a gun in its paws.
Ferguson's first show as host was on January 3, 2005. For approximately the first two months, he continued his predecessor's monologue format, reading 5–10 jokes from cue cards. He would ad-lib between the jokes, and soon noticed that the "stuff in-between" got the most reaction from his audience; after that realization, he decided he and his writers would stop writing jokes.
By May 2006, Studio 58, the CBS Television City venue from which the show was taped, had been updated with a digital broadcast Solid State Logic mixing console, needed for 5.1 Channel Surround.
A new set debuted on the July 24, 2006, episode. It included a miniature CBS airship that floated along over the backdrop depicting Los Angeles. In the week of March 17, 2008, The Late Late Show debuted a new set featuring a desk interview area on a raised platform; the backdrop was also changed to a detailed representation of Los Angeles.
When the 2007–08 Writers Guild of America strike began, the show went into reruns. It resumed production on January 2, 2008, after Worldwide Pants and the WGA came to an agreement.
In 2008, Worldwide Pants Incorporated signed a product placement deal with Ford to promote the Ford Flex during The Late Late Show. Eight episodes ("with one repeat") of the show included custom-written skits in which Ferguson played the leader of a Scottish rap band called The Highlanderz (consisting of Angus "Big Ginger" Ferguson, Philip "The Howler" McGrade, and Shannon "Bubbles" McGee), riding in a Flex as they traveled from Los Angeles International Airport to the CBS Studio. The skits were shown on successive Thursdays starting on September 4.
On August 31, 2009, the show began broadcasting in high definition, featuring a refitted studio and production facilities, along with a new show logo, new lights, an opening title sequence that "features Ferguson in iconic Los Angeles locations", and a new arrangement of the show's theme song.
Ferguson's initial contract as host was for six years, until the end of 2010; as of August 2007 he was telling television critics he might not be interested in a contract renewal, though by February 2008, he was publicly professing his loyalty to David Letterman, saying: "I will sit behind Dave as long as he sits there."
December 15, 2009, marked his 1,000th episode as host. For the occasion, puppets took over the show; Ferguson conducted the entire show as his puppet Wavy Ranchero, and recurring sketches also featured puppet replacements. Guests, which were not puppets, included Kristen Bell, Maria Bello, and Jason Schwartzman. Jason Segel also made an appearance as his muppet Dracula, performing a musical number with band The Broken West.
On March 31, 2010, the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication of the University of Georgia announced that the Late Late Show had won the Peabody Award for Excellence in Television for its "Evening with Archbishop Desmond Tutu" episode. According to the Peabody Board, "the Scottish-born Ferguson has made late-night television safe again for ideas".
On April 3, 2012, CBS announced Ferguson agreed to a contract extension through 2014. As part of the deal, CBS would co-produce the show with Worldwide Pants and CBS Television Studios and the show would move to a bigger studio. Although financial terms were not disclosed, the extension likely included a raise beyond what Variety reported had been his US$13 million salary.
A new set debuted on August 27, 2012. This was similar to the 2008 set, but the detailed representation of Los Angeles remained the same.
Following the departure of Jay Leno from The Tonight Show and the late night shake-up at NBC, both Late Show and The Late Late Show struggled in the ratings against Jimmy Fallon and his successor at 12:30 a.m. ET/PT, Late Night with Seth Meyers. In April 2014, Letterman announced his plans to retire. CBS passed over Ferguson to choose Stephen Colbert as the new host of Late Show beginning sometime in 2015, reportedly viewing Ferguson as too much of a niche performer to succeed Letterman. Ferguson's contract, which expired in June 2014, stipulated that he was Letterman's successor at 11:30 and that if he was not given the position, he would be paid compensation of as much as US$10,000,000. Letterman's contract included the right to control the time slot that follows his and produce the Late Late Show, and it was his production company (Worldwide Pants) that selected Ferguson as host and with whom his contracts were negotiated. With Letterman's departure, CBS would become the sole producer of the show and it is the network that determines what is done with the time slot and with which any contract is negotiated. CBS had been ambiguous in regard to Ferguson's future as host of The Late Late Show. CBS chief executive Les Moonves said in an interview: "12:30 is up in the air [...] Obviously, we’re considering all sorts of candidates and women are among them. A woman would be great in late night." However, CBS Entertainment chairman Nina Tassler said that the CBS management are "big fans of Craig" and that "Craig is here and doing his show at 12.30am, and we love having him there".
Chelsea Handler had reportedly begun negotiations to take over hosting of The Late Late Show when Ferguson's contract expired; however, both Handler and CBS later denied this, saying she was in fact in negotiations with CBS' syndication arm for a daytime show. John Oliver was also reportedly approached by CBS as a possible Late Late Show host prior to his signing a contract with HBO, as were Neil Patrick Harris and James Corden.
On April 28, 2014, Ferguson announced he would leave the show in December 2014. He had made the decision prior to Letterman's announcement but agreed to delay making his own decision public until the reaction to Letterman's decision had died down. He had also originally intended to leave in the summer of 2014 but agreed to stay until the end of the year to give CBS more time to find a successor. In a statement following his announcement, Tassler said that in his decade as host, Ferguson had "infused the broadcast with tremendous energy, unique comedy, insightful interviews, and some of the most heartfelt monologues seen on television". In an interview with Larry King, Ferguson stated that the final episode of The Late Late Show with him as host would air December 19, 2014.
In September 2014, comedian James Corden was announced as host of The Late Late Show with James Corden, beginning in 2015. In November 2014, CBS announced Jay Leno would be Ferguson's guest on his final show; during December "notable friends of the show" scheduled for appearances in December included Kristen Bell, Steve Carell, Jon Hamm, Rashida Jones, Mila Kunis, Thomas Lennon, Tim Meadows (whose 41 appearances set the show's record), Jim Parsons, Michael Sheen, Ariel Tweto, Betty White, and Henry Winkler. Meanwhile, several of Ferguson's final episodes dealt with his distaste for abstract expressionism—Mark Rothko in particular—and public reactions to that stance.
Ferguson's final episode started with the usual cold open, but this time showing a montage of friends from the show while they performed Dead Man Fall's song "Bang Your Drum".
Cameos included: Kevin Bacon, Kristen Bell, Jack Black, Pierce Brosnan, Steve Carell, Don Cheadle, Kristin Chenoweth, Marion Cotillard, Tenacious D, Jeff Daniels, Ted Danson, Kat Dennings, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Carl Edwards, Cedric the Entertainer, Tony Hale, Jon Hamm, Sean Hayes, Samuel L. Jackson, Rashida Jones, Toby Keith, Jimmy Kimmel, Larry King, Angela Kinsey, Lisa Kudrow, Mila Kunis, Thomas Lennon, Justin Long, Jane Lynch, James Marsden, Matthew McConaughey, Mary McCormack, Joel McHale, Tim Meadows, Metallica, Kunal Nayyar, Geoff Peterson, Regis Philbin, Ray Romano, Bob Saget, Kyra Sedgwick (plus dog Lily), William Shatner, Michael Sheen, Dax Shepard, Quentin Tarantino, Josh Robert Thompson, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Betty White, Henry Winkler, Shailene Woodley, Weird Al Yankovic, and various friends. The pre-taped montage segued to the studio with Ferguson continuing the song backed by the occasional semi-house band Bone Patrol, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, a full choir, various celebrities, musicians, and friends of the show.
The monologue began with a short time lapse of Craig coming out to start the show through the last 10 years, starting on his first day (January 3, 2005) to his last. Craig thanked his comedic partner Josh Robert Thompson, the viewers, the crew, and explained:
After reading his last Tweets & emails and doing his final interview with guest Jay Leno, the show ended with his final segment: What Did We Learn on the Show Over the Last 10 Years, Craig? Craig tells Geoff he wants to finally find out who the real identity of Secretariat is. Asked to lift up his mask, it's revealed to be Bob Newhart. Craig asks, "Bob Newhart?! What are you doing here?" to which Newhart replies, "Hey, guy, it's your dream." Craig wakes up next to Drew Carey as Nigel Wick and proceeds to spoof the finales of Newhart (the show was all a dream), St. Elsewhere (he imagined it all from a snowglobe), and The Sopranos (cut to black with Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'").
Ferguson starts with a cold open, which is a two-minute segment before the first commercials, theme song, and actual show. Originally, it was a miniature monologue and to talk about the guests on the show. Over time, this segment expanded to include short skits and musical sessions often involving puppets, and occasional interaction with members of the studio audience. In actual practice, the cold open was the second segment presented when the show was recorded at the CBS studios. The open was actually recorded after the monologue but aired before it, something Ferguson originally thinly disguised, but later openly mocked.
On November 22, 2010, Ferguson opened the show with evidence that a French talk show called Ce Soir Avec Arthur had stolen his show's opening sequence, as well as some of his puppet and song-and-dance concepts. On November 29, 2010, Ferguson introduced Arthur in the cold opening of the show; they joked back and forth for about two minutes, and then Arthur returned to help Ferguson answer viewer emails and again at the end of the show.
When he was hired as the full-time replacement for Craig Kilborn, Ferguson co-wrote and recorded a theme song. The theme tune was re-recorded for the show's switch to HD, premiering on August 31, 2009, and produced by Andy "Stoker" Growcott. Except for when the show traveled (i.e. Paris, Scotland, New Orleans), the lyrics to this theme were the same during the entire 10-year run.
Ferguson flirts with female guests.
On April 5, 2010, Ferguson began featuring a robot skeleton sidekick, Geoff Peterson, voiced by Josh Robert Thompson. The robot was created by former Mythbuster Grant Imahara. According to a web article by Jeremy Kaplan, when Imahara became aware of Ferguson's idea to have a robot sidekick, he responded with a March 1, 2010, tweet:
Ferguson subsequently came through with the followers and Imahara came through with the robot.
While Geoff began with pre-recorded phrases, Thompson voiced him live in studio for almost every episode since late June 2011, including those filmed in Paris and Scotland. Three people are often given screen credit at the end of the show as being responsible for Geoff: Imahara, writer Tom Straw (and later Bob Oschack), and voice actor Thompson.
Ferguson has said that the robot is "my metaphor for deconstructing the dead art form of the late night talk show", and that he selected the name because of its commonness. Ferguson has jokingly referred to Geoff as an "appliance" who is being used because the show's small budget does not permit a typical (and living) sidekick or band. But as the years progressed, mainly due to Thompson's performance, even Ferguson would admit that Geoff Peterson came to fully embody the very sidekick cliché that they intended to mock.
Geoff has a running "feud" with recurring guest Kristen Bell, who claims that she had wanted to be Craig's sidekick and was upset when Geoff was selected.
Secretariat is a pantomime horse which first appeared on October 11, 2010, as a joke reference to the Disney film Secretariat which was based on the life of the 1973 triple-crown winning racehorse, Secretariat. The people playing Secretariat were Joseph Bolter and Ryan McGowan.
Secretariat's appearances on the show would begin through a doorbell ring, which Ferguson would press at random moments in the show, even in the middle of an interview. Ferguson would ask, "Who's that at the door?," prompting Secretariat to enter and dance around the stage accompanied by techno music, with Ferguson, the guest, and the audience standing up to dance with him. Secretariat would initially leave through where he entered, but later episodes would show him proceeding to his "stall" at the right-hand side of the stage. By December 2010, he had become a regular on the show, and Secretariat would often appear even if unprompted, such as the cold opens or when talked to from his stall. Sometimes, Secretariat would be provoked by Ferguson or a Tweets & Email submission, causing him to angrily kick his stall open; Geoff would jokingly aggravate the situation by saying, "Kick his ass, man!," though he varies in rooting for either Ferguson or Secretariat.
Secretariat has appeared in some sketches, including one on January 7, 2011, when a clip was shown of Secretariat traveling to New York City to deliver a Christmas present to Jimmy Fallon, who competed against Ferguson in the same time slot on NBC. In the clip, Secretariat makes appearances on other New York-based CBS programs such as Live with Regis and Kelly, The View, CBS News (where Katie Couric did the Secretariat Dance), and Late Show with David Letterman.
When Ferguson hosted the show from Paris during the week of August 1, 2011, Secretariat played a role in several locations. He again accompanied the show during its week of programs taped in Scotland, airing in the summer of 2012. Secretariat also appeared in several background shots of ESPN remote shows during the show's visit to New Orleans for Super Bowl XLVII in 2013.
A following has been built around the false horse, with multiple fan pages existing on Facebook, and several websites selling Team Secretariat T-shirts. As part of the finale's last sketch, Secretariat unmasks himself and reveals himself to be Bob Newhart.
Voiced by Dana DeLorenzo, Sandra is a rhino head mounted above the studio's faux fireplace.
Over the course of his run as host, Ferguson wished to have a house band. As a substitute, Alfredo Sauce and the Shy Fellas were created, billed as "the Shyest Band in Late Night." Said to be hiding behind the curtain covering the studio bandstand, in reality Alfredo Sauce and the other band members were voiced by Thompson and their musical cues were stock recordings. Though the characters' faces were never shown, Alfredo Sauce's hand (an oversized prop) made an appearance in one episode when it reached out from behind the curtain.
Impersonations and sketch characters frequently done by Ferguson on the show include Prince Charles (usually hosting "The Rather Late Programme"), Wilford Brimley, Sean Connery, Bill Clinton, Queen Elizabeth II, Andy Rooney, Aquaman, Michael Caine, David Bowie, Elton John, Bono, and Mitt Romney. He claims that he developed his imitation of Caine after an eight-hour-long plane ride on which he sat behind Caine, who "gabbed" with his wife the entire trip.
Less frequent impersonations include Dr. Phil, Simon Cowell, Kim Jong-il, Mick Jagger, Morgan Freeman, Regis Philbin, Angela Lansbury (as "Jessica Fletcher" on Murder, She Wrote), Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon, Larry King ("of the Jungle"), Arnold Schwarzenegger, and J. K. Rowling.
Beginning in 2008, the show began incorporating puppets in the cold open; many were given to Ferguson by Folkmanis Puppets. Ferguson stated in an interview with Playboy magazine that the impetus behind starting to do the puppets is hearing an episode of Jonesy's Jukebox during his drive in to work where "The Lonely Goatherd" was played. Upon arriving he decided to lip synch the song on air that night using some hand puppets that were already on hand. The cloth puppets were phased out of the series after its move to a new studio in the fall of 2012, and were not featured in the show's opening that premiered in September 2013, but marionettes of Drew Carey and Morgan Freeman were used frequently in cold opens during the fall of 2013.
Puppets used on air:
The Late Late Show tapes musical performances separately from the rest of the show. For example, the noise rock band No Age was videotaped on October 2, 2008, for an appearance scheduled to air October 27. That performance was also the subject of an equal-time rule controversy in which guitarist Randy Randall was not allowed to wear a pro-Barack Obama T-shirt. Randall, not wanting to cancel the appearance, chose instead to turn the T-shirt inside out.
Starting in 2010, Ferguson began ending interviews by variously offering the guest a choice between two or three activities. These have included:
In 2006, clips of The Late Late Show began appearing on the video sharing website YouTube. Subsequently, Ferguson's ratings "grew seven percent (or by 100,000 viewers)."
During the week ending March 31, 2006, The Late Late Show attracted an average of 1.9 million total viewers, a number that increased to 2.0 million a year later.
During the week ending April 4, 2008, The Late Late Show attracted an average of 1.88 million total viewers; that week, for the first time since Ferguson began hosting, the show's "five-night week of original head-to-head broadcasts", which was later discovered to actually be four nights due to a difference in title, drew a larger audience than Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Reuters noted that "Ferguson's bigger accomplishment seems to be that he has merely lost fewer viewers this season, with his total audience slipping 12% from a year ago, compared with a 24% drop for O'Brien"; the year-to-year decline in viewership was attributed to the 2007–2008 Writers Guild of America strike.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson encountered new competition in March 2009, the first night of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. During Fallon's first week, the new show averaged 2.4 million viewers, a half million more viewers than Ferguson's show. Fallon maintained his lead over Ferguson during the show's second week, but by March 16, The Late Late Show had attracted a larger audience. In July 2009, Ferguson led Late Night in total viewers by a 25% margin. On September 22, 2009, the night Ferguson followed the Letterman interview of President Obama, his audience reached 3.24 million, the show's biggest ever; Ferguson attracted two million viewers more than Jimmy Fallon and almost a million more than Conan O'Brien attracted an hour earlier. By the end of 2009, The Late Late Show topped Late Night with Jimmy Fallon in the ratings with a 1.8 rating/6 share and 1.6 rating/6 share, respectively.
By May 2010, Late Late Show and Late Night were roughly tied in the ratings, with Ferguson leading in total viewers (1.7 million compared to 1.6 million for Fallon) and Fallon having a narrow edge in ratings.
During November sweeps in 2011, The Late Late Show was third in late-late night broadcasting; its 1.7 million views were well ahead of Last Call with Carson Daly but behind the 2 million viewers of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and the 1.8 million viewers of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
The 2012 November sweeps saw Jimmy Kimmel Live! edge ahead of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Late Show with 2.1 million total viewers, compared to Fallon's 1.75 million and Ferguson's 1.6 million.
The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson aired in Australia on Eleven, first premiering on January 11, 2011.
In Canada, the series aired on CHCH, Global, and Omni Television.