Late Late Show host Craig Ferguson is glad his show ended before Trump

Craig Ferguson, the former host of CBS’ “The Late Late Show,” recently said this “Obsessed: the podcast” that he was glad he got out of the late-night game before Donald Trump became president.

“I don’t know how I would have handled it. I’m glad I didn’t have to, to be honest,” Ferguson admitted. “I’ve thought about it before. It’s actually impossible to say.”

He added: ‘I like to think I would have gotten through it somehow, but I’m not sure I did.’

Trump has waged an all-out war on late-night television in his second term, often taking to Truth Social to raise the heads of hosts like Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. More than any other name in the space, Colbert and Kimmel have essentially turned their shows into political soapboxes where they relentlessly mock Trump and his administration.

Ferguson left “The Late Late Show” in December 2014, making way for James Corden to take over as host. Trump was elected president two years later, in 2016. Ferguson explained that he originally planned to leave the show a little early, but CBS offered to sweeten his deal if he stuck around longer.

“Comedy, like everything else in life, is really about timing,” he explained. “I actually wanted to leave for three years or so before I actually left, but you know, they throw a little money at you, you stay a little longer, and then you think, ‘Okay, enough is enough,’ but I really don’t know how I would have handled it.”

Late-night talents like Colbert and Kimmel have become symbols of resistance against the Trump administration in the media, but Ferguson said he would not have gone in that direction with his show, nor would he have tried to associate himself with the other late-night hosts.

“I remember saying at the time, ‘I’m not part of this,’” Ferguson recalls. “I always said on the show, ‘This is not a late night talk show. I’m not a late night talk show host.'”

He added that while hosting, he never felt like his “Late Late Show” was “an archetype like the others.”

“It may have started that way, but I don’t think it continued that way,” Ferguson added. “And I don’t feel like my journey through that period gives me any insight into what’s going on now or what happened before.”