Wow, this has been a scary week for late night comedians. Just a day after David Letterman mocked the jihadists threatening in message boards to kill him, his network-mate Craig Ferguson received an envelope in the mail containing white powder and a claim that it was anthrax. This, of course, brings up a very important question: Don’t terrorists get any channels other than CBS?

One of the best parts of Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show on CBS is that…well, he pretty much does whatever he wants. If he wants to open his show with puppets, he does it. If he wants a permanent “sidekick” that also happens to be a robot, he’ll get it. And if he wants to structure his entire monologue around Keith Olbermann’s departure from MSNBC, we found out tonight that he’ll do that too.

Christmas is a time of year when anyone should be able to get along, even the most ardent of foes, hated of enemies, and fiery of rivalries. I’m speaking, of course, of late night talk show hosts on opposing networks. Last night, Craig Ferguson and Jimmy Fallon showed this was the case by sending each other terrific Christmas presents to be opened on air, despite their “direct competition” as Ferguson put it. Wow, if these two can be friends, does that mean Jay Leno should expect a Christmas card from Conan? Eh, probably not.

MSNBC commentator and author Richard Wolffe, on CBS’ Late Late Show Wednesday, admitted to the label “journalist,” but not “Democrat”–leading host Craig Ferguson to ask if those weren’t two words for the same thing.

Wolffe described President Obama’s tax cut deal with Republicans as “embarrassing,” but suggested the broken campaign promise would actually insulate the president from GOP criticism since Republicans were now “in bed with him.”

Thanks to the YouTube, a lost moment of brilliance has been recaptured from oblivion–the lost “Doctor Who” dance number pulled from Craig Ferguson‘s Late Late Show two weeks ago.

Ferguson, a self-confessed fan of the epic British sci-fi series had devoted an entire night to the show, set for a big move into the U.S. with a Doctor Who Christmas special airing on Christmas Day (and directed by Steven Moffat, the same guy who just created the reboot of Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock).

Ferguson had planned to open the show with a huge puppet-laden, go-go booted dancer-filled musical number set to the famous Doctor Who music, complete with lyrics explaining the show to confused Americans–only to have the skit cut by producers:

We’ve all had our eyes glued on Conan for newsworthy stories and, somehow, we overlooked that the most interesting story in late night was happening on The Late Late Show. Recently, Ferguson and his staff noticed that the host of a show in France called Ce soir avec Arthur (“Tonight with Arthur”) had been stealing bits and them. He even stole the main titles! Instead of going to war, Ferguson did something better: he invited the guy over!

Conan O’Brien‘s night owl cohorts weren’t shy about mentioning the redhead’s new program on their own shows yesterday. David Letterman, though, wasn’t quite so gentle when he gave Conan a shoutout. In a typically sarcastic move, the acerbic late night titan took Conan‘s premiere as an opportunity to lob an uppercut at his favorite punching bag.

Late night comedy television has consistently been a location for heated competition – recently, more so than ever. (“Late night wars” has to be one of the most populated non-cable news tag pages on Mediaite.)

But this week, Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson did their parts to end the wars and become BFFs.

Craig Ferguson of CBS’ Late Late Show isn’t shy about experimenting with the late-night format, but the show he did last night was a radical departure even for him. Inspired by Tom Snyder, the first Late Late Show host, Ferguson did a show with no audience, instead talking to Stephen Fry, a terrific guest, for the full hour – and in the process cemented his status as one of TV’s most versatile talents.

Craig Ferguson is the second late-night host to join Twitter. Over a year after Jimmy Fallon joined, foreshadowing his web-savvy show, Ferguson jumped in with gusto, tweeting 18 times in his first twelve hours. Does this foreshadow the rest of the late-night crew getting on Twitter?

Bravo, Craig Ferguson — for focusing on Haiti, for putting the late-night wars in perspective — and for calling out Rush Limbaugh in a brilliant, poetic way.

Want to get away from all the Christmas Day festivities for a few minutes to watch some late night comedy?

Here’s a collection of holiday-themed moments from the past couple weeks. From the Muppets to Betty White – here’s how late night TV celebrated the 2009 holiday season:

Here’s another by-product of the Letterman ratings bump: More attention on Craig Ferguson equals more web-surfing his site for clips equals stumbling into this clip: Neil Patrick Harris Reads Craig’s Book. Insta-click, obvs.

5.7 million people tuned in watch David Letterman on Monday night for the follow-up show to last weeks shocking blackmail/sex-scandal revelations — more than doubling the ratings of late-night rival Conan O’Brien. This is good news not only for Letterman — ratings are the silveriest of linings in TV land — but for Craig Ferguson, whose Late Late Show follows him — and potentially CBS’ The Early Show, depending on how many people fall asleep with the TV on.

While his boss was spending his show last night joking, and apologizing, about his extortion/sex scandal, Craig Ferguson got the chance to weigh in for the first time on the issue.

Like his Worldwide Pants Incorporated boss David Letterman, Ferguson’s Late, Late Show doesn’t tape on Fridays, so in his first opportunity to address the scandal (or not), he took a funny, purposely awkward approach that teased the potential for more down the road.

The David Letterman extortion/sex with staffers revelation is the kind of story the media loves – as do the late night shows.

But how would they handle ragging on one of their own? Some steered clear, while others, like long-time rival Jay Leno, took his green car and went full-speed ahead.