Craig Ferguson: "Don't ever rope me in as a late-night talk show host"

Craig Ferguson is the late night talk show host who doesn't want to be called a late night talk show host.

Discussing the recent late night wars, he told Reuters that as he "watched that, whatever that was, unfold, I realized that I am not part of this -- I am not part of the late-night clubhouse. Don't ever rope me in as a late-night talk show host. I don't want to be one."

For one thing, why do all of the hosts wear suits and ties? Ferguson doesn't understand that particular convention, saying, "one of them that's really been bugging my ass right now is why do I ... dress like a mortician?"

[For the first few years of his show, fellow host Jimmy Kimmel shunned the tie, but he eventually succumbed. Anyone who's ever seen Kimmel in person can attest to the fact that he makes up for it by dressing super-sloppy in his off hours. Craig seems to be a little more put together offstage.]

And don't talk to Craig about replacing David Letterman at 11:30 if Dave should retire. "I neither care nor have any ambition about that," Ferguson said. "The thing is, Dave's doing a great job and he does what he does. I don't do what David Letterman does.

"Look at the terrible thing that happened to Conan when Conan tried to do what Jay Leno does. Conan shouldn't do that. He doesn't do what Jay Leno does. Jay Leno does what Jay Leno does. And then when (Conan) started doing what Conan does, it was too late."