Soon, Jimmy Kimmel will be the longest-running late night host. That's because Craig Ferguson is announcing on tonight's show that he'll be leaving The Late, Late Show this December. As you can surmise from earlier messages here on this topic, that's not a surprise.
Well, the timing might be. Is Letterman still handing off to Colbert in 2015? If so, that means Ferguson's replacement will be in place before Dave leaves, perhaps many months before. Guess the theory is that Dave will get enhanced numbers for his farewell episodes and they want the new show to enjoy the bump from that lead-in.
So now we get to speculate wildly on another replacement host. Some of the reports say Neil Patrick Harris has expressed interest and I think he'd be great. CBS probably sees some value to breaking the "white guy" mold and might put a woman or a minority in there…but Mr. Harris, being gay, might qualify as enough of a minority.
If it's not N.P.H., it'll be someone whose name wasn't mentioned as a possible successor for Letterman…someone who was not well-enough established to be a candidate for 11:35. I don't think CBS wanted Chelsea Handler for either time slot and she knows it, which is why she's reportedly about to announce a new series for Netflix.
I'll be sorry to see Craig Ferguson exit because I think he's been doing the best of the late night shows for some time. Fortunately, he'll be around with a new syndicated game show and probably other projects, as well. And I sure hope they don't shoot the horse and that Geoff lands another gig somewhere.