Craig Ferguson Returning to Late Night

After nearly a decade away, Craig Ferguson is reportedly returning to late-night TV. Deadline reports that Ferguson shot a pilot for a new series, Channel Surf with Craig Ferguson, earlier this month. According to a brief synopsis of the show, Channel Surf will feature Ferguson reviewing “shocking, surprising and hilarious moments of the week’s shows” with some of his friends. The potential series does not yet have a network or streaming home, but is being shopped around.

“I wanted to do Channel Surf because I think television is ready for the return of the silly/ funny/ occasional lip-synching puppet format,” Ferguson said in a statement. “Also, it’s a TV show which contains clips of questionable moments from other TV shows thus creating a spectacular visual turducken of stupid.” Zack Hernandez — the Senior Vice President of U.S. Syndication Sales for the show’s producing company SPT — added, “With a shortage of sitcoms available for stations, viewers need a place to laugh. Channel Surf is that perfect show. Craig shot a hilarious pilot, and we can’t wait to reintroduce our buyers to him and look forward to giving audiences a chance to watch this very funny show.”

Ferguson previously hosted The Late Late Show on CBS from 2005 until 2014, at which point he retired from the show and James Corden took over. Prior to his time as host of Late Late, Ferguson was most well-known for his role as quirky boss Nigel Wick on The Drew Carey Show. In the years since his Late Late exit, Ferguson has appeared on a number of shows such as Celebrity Name Game, Join or Die with Craig Ferguson, and most recently the short-lived ABC mystery competition series The Hustler.

In October, Ferguson sat down with Catalyst and, during the conversation, he shared part of why he opted to leave The Late Late Show. “I couldn’t take the machinery of it,” he said. “When I was a kid, when I was a punk rocker, I used to say ‘You’ll never get me in a suit and sittin’ behind a desk.’ And they did it. They got me doing it.”

He later added, “Oh, the money was great. But the thing about ‘f— you’ money is that it can f— you. That’s what I found. At a certain point you go ‘Is it always about the money?’ And the answer is, it’s very difficult because … but there’s gotta be something else there as well. The truth is, I go out and do standup now … I don’t need to do it, I like to do it. I want to do it. And most nights – well, not every night – it feels like such a privilege to go out and do this show. Most nights it’s like yeah, I love to do it.”