Checking in with CRAIG FERGUSON
Craig Ferguson had wanted to host another game show, and this time, he’s very much in the game himself.
After the actor-comedian and former CBS late-night host’s Daytime Emmy-honored run with “Celebrity Name Game,” he both guides the competition and acts as a player as ABC debuts “The Hustler” Monday, Jan. 4. (It enters its usual Thursday slot several days later.) One of the contestants already has the answers to the trivia questions posed, but the person has to keep that secret from the others to claim the grand prize.
“I’m kind of slow on the uptake with this kind of thing,” the self-effacing, Scottish-born Ferguson muses, “so I was like, ‘Wait! What happens?’ My agent’s office has a big conference room where they rule the world from, and we played the game a couple of times there, and I Ioved it. I don’t just host this, I have to play ... and I don’t know who the Hustler is.
“That’s a good idea for two reasons,” Ferguson notes. ‘One, it keeps my attention, and I’m a little easily distracted. And two, it puts me in a completely neutral situation. You usually have to be careful not to give a clue (thus revealing the game’s secret), but I can’t, because I genuinely don’t know. So for the legality of it, it’s great.“
Seen recently with longtime friend Kathie Lee Gifford in the movie “Then Came You” (which she also wrote), Ferguson reports that “ABC had been looking for a game-show format for me for a while. I’d done a couple of pilots for them over the years that didn’t go, and when we hit on this, we knew that this was the one.”
Birthdate: May 17, 1962
Birthplace: Glasgow, Scotland
Current residence: Scotland
Marital status: Married to his third wife; he has two children
Other television work includes: “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,” “Celebrity Name Game,” “Craig Ferguson’s Hobo Fabulous,” “Join or Die With Craig Ferguson,” “Hot in Cleveland,” “Web Therapy,” “Craig Ferguson: Just Being Honest,” “Craig Ferguson: I’m Here to Help,” “Craig Ferguson: Does This Need to Be Said?,” “Craig Ferguson: A Wee Bit o’ Revolution,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Buzz Lightyear of Star Command” (voice only), “Freakazoid!” (voice only), “Maybe This Time,” “The Price Is Right,” “Sesame Street,” “Bygones,” “The Ferguson Theory”
Movie work includes: “Then Came You,” “How to Train Your Dragon” (voice only), “How to Train Your Dragon 2” (voice only), “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (voice only), “Brave” (voice only), “The Ugly Truth,” “Trust Me,” “Niagara Motel,” “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events,” “I’ll Be There” (also its writer), “Born Romantic,” “Saving Grace,” “The Big Tease” (also its writer)
Favorite movie: “‘The Great Escape.’ I think that movie and ‘Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood’ are right at the top for me.”
Favorite TV show you’re not on: “‘MythBusters,’ or ‘Top Gear’ when it was (Jeremy) Clarkson, (James) May and (Richard) Hammond.”
Favorite singer: “David Bowie and David Byrne. And, if you don’t tell my wife, Karen Carpenter. I love her voice, but my wife hates the Carpenters, so don’t tell her.”