One of Ferguson's first guests is Nicole Sullivan, coincidentally the first woman Ferguson dated when he came to the United States from Scotland in 1994.
"Host-whisperer" Peter Lassally, veteran producer of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and for David Letterman takes over the day-to-day running of the show as executive producer. Lassally was largely responsible for hiring Ferguson, and had been coaching him in his new role.[4]
During Baldwin's interview, Ferguson notes the obvious and oversimplified nature of his notecard, and tears it up.[7] This tearing of notecards becomes a permanent hallmark of Ferguson's interviews, signaling his intent to have a real, unscripted conversation with guests.[8]
Video of Ferguson being sworn in as a US citizen. Monologue includes a description of his first solo flight,[9] and announcement of his being chosen to host the 2008 White House Correspondents' Dinner.[10]
Playboy Mansion skit: "Bunny" Ferguson is tries to get in to the party Skit: "The Rather Late Program with Prince Charles" with warm-up comedian Chunky B as the guard
Ferguson recounts events at his White House Correspondents' Dinner gig Ewan McGregor joins Ferguson and Philip McGrade for a thoroughly unrehearsed "ESPN UK/Field of Weems" skit.
Cold open: Late Late Show version of the opening scene from Apocalypse Now Skit with Ferguson as Simon Cowell and show writer John T. Reynolds as the bartender
When Seann William Scott, a scheduled guest, is stuck in traffic, Ferguson improvises with an interview of segment producer Lisa Ammerman, who had been in charge of coordinating Scott's appearance
Last night of Magic Week: Assisted by magician Ed Alonzo, Ferguson cuts Kristen Bell in half, and later talks with fellow Glaswegian Alex Kapranos of the band Franz Ferdinand.
"Party at Elton John's House" sketch with show writer John T. Reynolds as Ferguson; Ferguson as Elton John; Salman Rushdie as himself, and Bradley Laise as the tiny dancer.
When his staff doesn't perform as expected, Ferguson enjoys hassling show producer Michael Naidus for several days in a row, an activity that will eventually become a regular feature on the show.
After traveling to Nashville for standup, Ferguson's flight was overbooked. He tells the story and takes the opportunity to thoroughly dress down the relevant airline.
English actor, comedian, director and writer Stephen Fry is the sole guest in this special tribute to The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder, presented without the regular studio audience.[21]
Origins of Geoff Peterson: Ferguson announces that Grant Imahara of Mythbusters got 100,000 Twitter followers, and will be building him a robot skeleton sidekick
Origins of Geoff Peterson: Ferguson narrates a brief comedic history of late night, including Grant Imahara's beginning to build robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson
In the cold open, puppet Wavy Rancheros announces The Late Late Show has won a Peabody Award for the March 4, 2009 episode with Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Musical cold open: lip sync to "Look Out There's a Monster Coming" by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band for the debut of robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Peterson. Created by guest Grant Imahara of The Mythbusters, Geoff will become a permanent character on the show. He is initially voiced with a recorded robotic version of Ferguson's voice.
The show's closing ("What Did We Learn on the Show Tonight, Craig?") features the first appearance of the rabbit puppet to become known as "Sid the Cussing Bunny".
Pantomime horse Secretariat, who will become a regular on the show, makes his first live appearance. He will appear frequently on the show, and in the fall of 2012 become a permanent "cast member".
Special format episode. Cold open monologue on the Boston bombing. Last-minute guest Larry King discusses news broadcasting on tragic events. Opening credits, comedic monologue, sidekicks Geoff Peterson and Secretariat are omitted.
As part of an April Fool's Day staff swap with The Price Is Right, Drew Carey hosted with four sidekicks -- George Gray, Rachel Reynolds, Amber Lancaster and Manuela Arbeláez. Ferguson, Stevens, and "Secretariat" were on Price hours later.
It's the Geoff Peterson-free show. Josh Robert Thompson is unavailable for the episode and Craig calls Secretariat into service as his sidekick for the evening.
Craig's final show starts with the usual cold open, but this time showing a montage of friends from the show performing Dead Man Fall's song "Bang Your Drum." Some are shown lip-synching to the song, while others are shown carrying and playing a large bass drum.
The monologue begins with a short time lapse of Craig coming out to start show through the last 10 years, starting on his first day (January 3, 2005) to his last day (December 19, 2014). Craig thanks his comedic partner Josh Robert Thompson, the viewers, the crew, and explains "Over the years, going with this show out and around, or going and doing stand-up with Josh, I've come into contact with a lot of people who are viewers of this show, and although I said my goodbyes to the crew, the people who made this show are you. You came to a show that, let's be honest, a bit of a fixer upper. It kind of stayed that way, but what I hope we've done ... maybe art is a very grand word, but I think what we managed to do here is make something that wasn't here before. So in that sense maybe it is a piece of art, it didn't exist and now it does. What we've done here, it doesn't go away because I stopped doing it, we stop doing this and we start doing something else ... maybe ... later, or maybe I go away and this is it! But I think what was more overwhelming than anything else in the experience of doing this show was making a connection with a country which I became a part of, which is astonishing to me. Even in the course of this show I became an American, officially and particularly for my friends at the IRS, I am now a fully fledged American. However, what I can't be is a member of a club, which I didn't really ask to join, I wanted to do this show ... and now we've done this show, and if you will indulge me in whatever I'm doing now and come to whatever I do next I'd be very grateful, because my kids are still young."
After reading his last Tweets & E-mails and doing his final interview with guest Jay Leno, the show ends 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 he replies, "Hey man it's your dream." Craig wakes up next to Drew Carey as Nigel Wick and proceed 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').[32][33][34]
^Variety Staff (Dec 8, 2008). "Craig Ferguson: Another one from the heart". Variety. Ferguson's mother, Janet, died last week in Scotland.... Judging by the humble, humorous, earthy eloquence of the 16-minute eulogy he delivered nearly three years ago after the passing of his father, Robert Ferguson, this will be a can't-miss monologue.
^Tucker, Ken (February 24, 2010). "Craig Ferguson last night: no audience, one guest, a great hour of TV". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on March 19, 2015. Craig Ferguson had no studio audience last night, and only one guest: actor-writer-comedian-polymath and occasional Bones cast member Stephen Fry. They just talked. It was one of the best hours of TV I've seen in a while.
