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In the years since Craig Ferguson rose to fame, he has proven time and time again that he is among the most fascinating people in the entertainment industry. For example, Ferguson has been very open about the fact that he has grappled with some major addiction issues throughout his life. While that is fascinating enough, Ferguson’s experiences made him so empathetic that he famously publically defended Britney Spears when everyone else was piling on to mock the pop star
Since Craig Ferguson is fiercely intelligent, very funny, and he truly seems to care about people, he has accumulated millions of very devoted fans. Despite that, just like every other star, some of Ferguson’s efforts in the entertainment business have failed. For example, Ferguson’s recent game show The Hustler was canceled which left his fans with one question, why?
What Was Craig Ferguson’s The Hustler?
On January 4th, 2021, millions of people tuned in to ABC to watch the network’s latest game show, The Hustler. As fans of that show will already know, each episode featured five contestants who come together to try to earn money as a group by answering trivia questions as several of them are eliminated. However, one of those five people is the Hustler, a contestant who knows all of the answers and who gets all the money if they can get to the end without being eliminated. If the other contestants can eliminate the hustler by the end, they will get to share the money instead.
A game show that combines fascinating trivia questions with subterfuge, viewers enjoyed trying to figure out the identity of the hustler without worrying about losing money. On top of that, the show had something else going for it, the show was hosted by the always wonderful Craig Ferguson.
When Craig Ferguson made the rounds to promote The Hustler before its premiere, he made one thing clear, he was excited to host the show. The reason Ferguson enjoyed hosting the game show was simple, producers didn’t tell him who the hustler was either so he got to try to figure it out along with the contestants.
As anyone who watched The Hustler will likely be able to attest, it seemed clear that the show’s host Craig Ferguson didn’t know the identity of the person working against the team. After all, even as Ferguson seemed to delight in getting in the contestants' heads by saying provocative things, you could also see the wheels turning inside his head. Considering that Ferguson’s fans loved it anytime he lost it when he hosted The Late Late Show, it makes sense they also enjoyed seeing him trying to figure things out during each The Hustler episode.
Why Was Craig Ferguson’s The Hustler Was Canceled
Only three months after The Hustler premiered on television, the show was renewed for a second season in April 2021. If that wasn’t impressive enough, ABC rushed the show’s second season into production so quickly that it premiered just over five months after the first episode of the show aired. Needless to say, that kind of quick turnaround for a second season is extremely rare, to say the very least.
After two seasons of The Hustler aired between January and September of 2021, it seemed pretty clear that ABC valued having the show in its lineup. Despite that, fans were left waiting for months to hear if a third season had been greenlit but in the end, it was announced that The Hutler had been canceled instead. Once they learned about The Hustler's fate, many fans struggled to understand how it went from airing two seasons in 2021 to being canceled in 2022.
According to a tvseriesfinale.com article, The Hustler was canceled for a very simple reason, people stopped watching. According to that article, The Hustler’s second season ratings suffered a 44% drop in the key demo and it was down 40% overall. If that isn’t a valid reason to cancel a show then nothing is. That said, it could be argued that The Hustler’s ratings failed because the show was rushed back too quickly and it wasn’t promoted enough.
What Does The Hustler’s Cancellation Mean For Craig Ferguson?
Needless to say, when a show gets canceled that typically isn’t a good thing for its stars’ bank accounts. Fortunately, Craig Ferguson is quite rich so money isn’t much of a worry for him. However, just because Ferguson isn’t struggling financially, The Hustler’s cancellation still could have been devastating for him.
Even though Craig Ferguson is the one who quit The Late Late Show, he has admitted that he went through a “difficult” time when his time on that show ended. As a result, it seems safe to assume that Ferguson was upset when he lost his job hosting The Hustler. After all, Ferguson spoke about really enjoying hosting The Hustler in the past and he wasn’t the one who opted to leave the show in that case. Still, Ferguson has proven that he is a survivor over and over again so it is only a matter of time before he reinvents himself again.