Craig Ferguson to leave Late Late Show, had no desire to replace Letterman

Craig Ferguson is stepping down as the host of CBS’ Late Late Show after 10 years at the helm.

Ferguson told his studio audience yesterday, “I’ll be stepping down at the end of this year, in December. Then I’ll go and do something else, probably, I’m thinking carpentry, but I haven’t made my mind up yet,” Ferguson joked. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I feel doing this show for 10 years, that’s enough.”

In an official announcement posted by the network he added, “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.”

Since the announcement, Ferguson has been emphasizing that the decision was not based on any acrimony in regards to Stephen Colbert being slected to replace David Letterman as host of the Late Show, as has been widely speculated.

He told Variety:

“It’s an inevitable thing when David announced his retirement, people are going to say ‘Oh he’s leaving because of that.’ No matter what I say or what I do, they’re gonna say that. Well they can say what they like. It’s America. I understand. I wanted to leave the show before I stopped enjoying it. That was my goal. I didn’t want it to be a chore… The whole idea is that show business should have some adventure to it, I think. It’s not about knowing what you’re doing day in and day out, year after year.”

For additional emphasis the host said of the Letterman situation, “I had no desire — none — to do that job.”

Ferguson has an upcoming TV gig as host of a syndicated game show to be called Celebrity Name Game and he’s also developing other projects via his production company.