May 6, 2014
e Entertainment
“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,” Ferguson said playfully during a taping of his show on Monday. However, audience members reported that Ferguson used commercial breaks to admit in a not-so-playful way that he was not very happy about the network’s new plans for late night.
His announcement to move on was a surprise, but was not totally unexpected after the network selected Stephen Colbert to replace David Letterman on “The Late Show” instead of Ferguson.
Ferguson was chosen to host “The Late Late Show” by Letterman in 2005 and his show was produced by Letterman’s Worldwide Pants entertainment company. With Dave deciding to retire and Ferguson’s contract set to expire this summer, CBS saw an opportunity to totally remake their late night line up.
e Entertainment
Speculation is heavy that CBS has long wanted to recruit Chelsea Handler as Ferguson’s replacement. Handler is wildly popular among late night audiences, she would be the only female among any of the major network late night talk shows and she could prove to be a strong partner to follow Stephen Colbert and go up against Jimmy Fallon and Seth Myers on NBC. However, the network is said to also be considering Tina Fey as another possible female, as well as Chris Rock, who would be the only African-American late night host on a major network.
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| l to r: Tina Fey, Chris Rock, Chelsea Handler |
