10 Times TV Actors Thought They Would Be Fired For Sure
3. Craig Ferguson - The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson
Actor-comedian Craig Ferguson began hosting The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson in 2005, and barely two years into the job, feared he might be let go by network CBS after making the bold decision to go off-script regarding a monologue he deemed inappropriate.
In February 2007, Britney Spears famously shaved her head while in the midst of a mental health crisis, as proved easy fodder for a bevy of less-compassionate TV "entertainers."
And though Ferguson's writers' room had prepared a list of the expected jokes at Spears' expense, he ultimately refused to tell any of them, opting to instead write a deeply personal monologue about Spears' situation.
The monologue saw Ferguson flatly declare that he wouldn't be making any jokes about Spears, while speaking about his own struggles with substance abuse and calling for empathy from the mainstream media.
While Ferguson's speech was well-received at the time and has gone viral several times in recent years, he believed it might also result in his being dismissed from a talk show where he was expected to make light of current affairs. He said in a recent interview:
"I thought at the time that I was giving my resignation monologue. I thought, 'They’re going to fire me for this.' And actually the opposite happened, and everyone seemed to be very happy about it. I never heard anything negative from anybody at the network or (production company) Worldwide Pants. But I was convinced at the time that I was getting into trouble."