Rise to Fame
Late-night TV had a formula in 2005 and it was a safe one: desk, monologue, celebrity couch, repeat. Ferguson threw out the notes, abandoned the desk on occasion, and turned CBS's post-Letterman slot into something genuinely unpredictable. He got the spot after a decade grinding American TV as the put-upon boss on The Drew Carey Show. When Britney Spears was publicly unraveling in 2007, every host was expected to mock her. Ferguson refused, improvised a monologue defending her dignity, and cited his own recovery from addiction. The internet didn't forget it.
In the Spotlight
Leaving The Late Late Show on his own terms in 2014 looked like a bold move until you noticed how few options came after it. Celebrity Name Game won him two Daytime Emmys and ran for three seasons. The Hustler on ABC lasted two. Sony announced Channel Surf, his own late-night half-hour, in 2023; it still hadn't found a broadcaster by late 2025. Now he's hosting Scrabble on The CW, a 30-episode run that critics describe as comfort TV. He shows up knowing only the contestants' names. If that's a formula, at least it's his.
Side Notes
Before any of this, he was the drummer in a Glasgow post-punk band with Peter Capaldi, then in his early twenties and years away from becoming the twelfth Doctor Who. The Dreamboys played small venues and recorded a live 7-inch in 1980. He reportedly also briefly drummed for Nico, the Velvet Underground collaborator, during her Scotland tour. The sobriety story is grimmer: Christmas 1991, he walked toward Tower Bridge planning to jump, got drunk again instead, and got sober two months later. He scored 100% on his U.S. citizenship test in 2008. A decade after that, he bought a 15th-century Scottish castle in Ayrshire.