PASADENA, Calif. -- We just had to ask Craig Ferguson, "Do you really think Paul McCartney hates you?"
"Probably, yeah, wouldn't you?" said Ferguson, in his trademark animated way. "I think he probably does. And I feel awful, just awful about that."
Well, not quite awful enough to quit saying, "I think we have a picture of Paul McCartney here," and then showing a pic of Angela Lansbury.
Back when The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson first hit the air on CBS in 2005, he began running a photo of Lansbury and saying it was McCartney -- they kind of have similar eyes. A Los Angeles TV critic ripped Ferguson for it, saying it was "without context," so Ferguson peevishly has kept it up. It was only a few weeks ago that Ferguson did it yet again.
"Yeah, but at least I admitted that I should stop," Ferguson said. "And that's a start. Admitting you have a problem is the first step."
On the surface, it doesn't appear as if Ferguson has any problems. The Scotsman-turned-American often is cited by critics as being the freshest talk-show host working today, but he claims he isn't even in the late-night club stylistically.
"I think my show is probably closer to Pee-wee's Playhouse than anything else I've seen, and that is an aspiration," Ferguson said during a session at the Television Critics Association tour.
Certainly, Ferguson's unscripted, off-the-cuff, stream-of-consciousness "monologues," if you can call them that, are unlike anything else on the late-night scene.
"That's why I never would Twitter because I've got an hour to fill every f---ing night," Ferguson said. "What the hell else am I going go to say? 'Going to say things about things.' "
Ferguson claims that while he glances at TV ratings regularly, he doesn't really understand them, so he doesn't worry about them.
"When they say people age 18-34, and then they go 18-49, I say, 'What? So the people in the 18-34, are they in the 18-49? Or is this different people that are not in the 18-34?' " Ferguson said.
"Then you go, 'Do all ratings stop at 49?' And they do! You go, 'I'm 47. So in two years, I'm f---ed? F--- you, no!'
"Here's what I do know. It seemed to me, and I don't know if this is absolutely accurate, but when Jay (Leno) was s---canned from (NBC's The Tonight Show), he was the leader in all numbers, and then they fired him. I don't want to get fired. So perhaps keeping your head down is what you should do with the numbers."
Speaking of Leno, the late-night landscape could change dramatically this fall, depending on what effect -- if any -- Leno's new show at 10 p.m. on NBC will have.
"I am mystified by many things in life, and that one, I don't really understand what's going on there, either," Ferguson said. "But I don't program television."
One thing Ferguson doesn't joke about is becoming an American, which is something he did last year. He has a book coming out next month titled American on Purpose.
"It's an autobiography and I'm looking forward to reading it," Ferguson said, making fun of the book rather than his adopted nationality. "It's just the story of how I ended up here, which surprises me as much as anyone.
"(Becoming an American) is such an important thing for me. It's a belief in the fairness of opportunity. I have trouble making fun of it, which is okay. Other people can do that. It's not my job to make fun of everything.
"I'll just do what I do."
In other words, brace yourself for more, Paul McCartney.
