CBS will once again broadcast Boston’s 4th of July celebration, hosted by Craig Ferguson. For the first time, the show will be in high definition and the final 20 minutes of music and fireworks will be commercial free. The show will be live in the east and central time zones (10pm ET/9pm CT) and delayed in the west.

Back in 2008, the Scotsman newspaper profiled Craig, noting his growing popularity in America.

Also in 2008, Craig made one of his appearances on Late Night with David Letterman, just a short while after becoming an American citizen.

Video courtesy: 0mnicient

Craig starts off another week of all new Late Late Shows with actor Bradley Whitford and singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne on Monday. Then on Tuesday, expect a wild night with Ice Cube, comic book legend Stan Lee and comedian Tig Notaro. On Wednesday, Home Improvement star Tim Allen and actress Saffron Burrows join Craig. Then on Thursday, watch for actress Virginia Madsen, Nerdist host Chris Hardwick and music from Scotland’s Justin Currie. Then on Friday, Craig welcomes actor Mark Ruffalo and actor D.J. Qualls.

Leave it to the World Cup to get Craig tweeting on a Saturday. With England and the USA playing to a 1-1 tie in the opening round, Craig was glued to the television and the tweety box. Here’s a look at what he said: Men in dark blue shirts 1-0 down to England. Sickeningly familiar. Come on USA! Green embracing Scottish goalkeeping technique. Thank God. Ok. Hitting mute. Fucking trumpets sound like mutant bees. Respectable start for USA. For my money, man of the match – Green. Have to agree about the horns, Craig. Thanks to RSA member Banana_Happy for capturing the screen with Craig’s top tweet on Twitter!

RSA members pixiepict and SapphireSong91 let us know that they’re getting close to 600 signatures on the petition to get justchristinah some attention from the national talk shows. If you haven’t read about Christinah’s story and signed, please check it out.

Last fall, while promoting his book American on Purpose, Craig visited with Harry Smith on the Early Show.

Video courtesy: CBS

Don’t forget, tag your tweets with #RSArmy during the World Cup to avoid confusion with South Africa’s team. The Robot Skeleton Army will take over #RSA again afterward!

Craig was Chris Hardwick’s guest for the Nerdist podcast, recorded last night in Los Angeles. Rebecca Tucker tweeted pictures from last night’s taping: Nerd has never looked so good http://twitpic.com/1vqtae I prefer this one. Craig smiles, Chris looks unstable. http://twitpic.com/1vqv6f The podcast is scheduled to be posted on the Nerdist site Monday. We’ll provide a link when it is up and running.

Since its beginnings in February, the Robot Skeleton Army has used the hashtag #RSA on Twitter, to help fellow roboskellies follow discussions of all things Craig and Late Late Show related. The tag is also used periodically by members of a security trade group, as well as to discuss a computer encryption algorithm. Because there are so many active members, the Robot Skeleton Army usually dominates any #RSA postings. However, with the World Cup now underway, several members have noticed that the flag of the Republic of South Africa now shows up when you hashtag #RSA. If you search of the tag today, you’ll see almost all of the discussions are related to soccer. Our esteemed general Malinky2Stoatir proposes using a temporary tag to distinguish us from the tournament. After taking an informal survey of options including CRS, ARS, and CFRSA, she discovered the preference seems to be #RSArmy. Here at RSA News, we will tag with #RSArmy during the World Cup.

Friday fact: The user names of @CraigyFerg ‘s 225,044 followers would fill a paperback book more than 900 pages long.

To finish the week on the Late Late Show, don’t miss comedian and one of Twitter’s newest celebrity posters Denis Leary, plus the unique comedy of John “Hippieman” Novosad. LLS Producer Michael Naidus tweeted this afternoon: Tonight: Denis Leary unleashed. Enjoy!

It turned out to be the wave that wasn’t, at least for the Eastern and Central time zones. Lots of careful planning went into the timing, so Jimmy Fallon on Late Night could wave to Craig wearing oversized (not) Mickey Mouse hands (for copyright reasons) on the Late Late Show and Craig could wave back.
But the NHL’s Stanley Cup Finals got in the way. The New York Times explains what happened. The ever resourceful Ken Tucker at Entertainment Weekly has the essential video clips in case you missed them (in your region).

The Mountain and Pacific time zones got the full effect… and the rest of the country could at least see each wave, even if the timing didn’t work out. Craig congratulated Jimmy for the gesture: Big ups to my new BFF @jimmyfallon for spreading the love with the glove. Fuck the haters Jimmy. And Jimmy’s tweet was simple: I’m a glover not a fighter. http://bit.ly/9boZ7W

Rebecca Tucker reminds us not to forget the Nerdist podcast. Craig sits down with host Chris Hardwick at 8:30pm: Nerdist podcast tonight at Largo! No joke, last time I peed my pants from laughing so hard. I expect good things from tonight’s guest. UPDATE: The podcast should be available for download early next week. RSA member sjump54 gave us the details: Nerdist podcasts aren’t streamed live. They are usually uploaded Mon or Tues of the following week. At ITunes or @nerdist.com

Voice actor Josh Robert Thompson, voice of robot skeleton sidekick Geoff Petersen, also tweeted today: Just recorded some really funny Morgan Freeman stuff for “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson”! Stay tuned…

Tonight on the Late Late Show, Craig welcomes back chef Wolfgang Puck and enjoys the music of reggae/rap duo Damian Marley & Nas.

UPDATE: Jimmy Fallon is aware of Craig’s challenge to wave a (not) Mickey Mouse hand (for copyright reasons) on his show. He tweeted this evening: Heard about @CraigyFerg‘s “wave for peace” in the “Late Night Wars” We’re not sure if he heard about it in time for today’s taping (shh!) of Late Night but we’ll keep an eye open tonight and tomorrow to see if the hand appears.

It has been confirmed that Craig will host Boston’s 4th of July celebration for the fourth consecutive year.  The appearance fits in nicely with Craig’s east coast stand up comedy tour in July.

Regarding his recent on-air look, Craig said this: Going for sneakers again tonight but perhaps easing up on the bonkers Christopher Walken hairdo. Does that mean less “high hair”?

Don’t forget to tune your googlyweb thingy to the Nerdist tomorrow (Thursday, in your region), where Craig Ferguson appears as Chris Hardwick’s podcast guest. Chris will also have a musical guest, Sara Watkins, formerly of the country/bluegrass band Nickel Creek. And Craig turns the tables next week, when Chris appears as a guest on the Late Late Show.

Craig’s assistant Rebecca Tucker responded to a question on Twitter recently about opportunities to meet Craig. Here’s what she said: “…as far as I know, the only shows with meet and greets were in Vegas” That means seeing Craig on the road may mean waiting at the stage door, as several RSA members have done at other shows. Security may be different from place to place, so it’s important to be flexible and respectful. Craig always seems to be accommodating when meeting fans but remember he may be in a hurry and personal attention may not be possible. The best way to see Craig in person is still simply buying a ticket to a performance or attending a taping (shh) of the LLS in Los Angeles.

Tonight’s guests on the Late Late Show are actress Kyra Sedgwick and “Draco” from Harry Potter, actor Tom Felton. Note: Twitter is having major issues again today. We will post links and/or updates when possible.

What happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas. Thankfully, our RSA members are willing to share some of their experiences taking a trip to see Craig perform live. The one and only SariesWick, who appeared on the Late Late Show back in March wearing her Robot Skeleton Army t-shirt, has a detailed account of her adventure with Colleen_Byrne, LolLioness and Monsie, including her time backstage. She also took some nice photos here and here.

As SariesWick mentioned, she ran into another loyal RSA member, Fanny 57, at the show. Fanny took a bunch of photos of the Venetian and other sights around Las Vegas for us to enjoy as well as several videos. Thanks to both ladies for sharing their experience with the rest of the RSA!

We’ve been keeping an eye on RSA member mobudaki, whose cat got loose during a flight layover at the Dallas Fort Worth airport. According to tweets we’ve seen today, her cat may have been spotted at the airport and people are looking hard today. Let’s cross our fingers for her!

Craig tweeted about his (temporary?) new look last night: Jeez. My hair was too high & I wore sneakers on the show tonight. I looked like a cut price Ellen impersonator. Current mood: proud. His assistant, Rebecca Tucker added: Boss was wearing a suit w/sneakers tonite and asked me before show “do I look too much like Melanie Griffith in “Working Girl”? Love my job! And assistant producer Andrea Wayland chimed in today: Wonder what kind of sneakers are going to be broken out on the show tonight. I hope they are stripey. Or maybe those Converse high heels!!

Rebecca also noted today a term we’ve been familiar with for a while in the RSA: You know you’ve hit the big time when you make Urban Dictionary http://tinyurl.com/yellv7l

Tonight on the Late Late Show, Craig welcomes back author and playwright John Waters and actress/singer Taraji P. Henson. Also, today is World Oceans Day, as designated by the United Nations. In light of recent events in the Gulf of Mexico, it seems an appropriate day to recognize.

A good time was had by all during Craig’s latest trip to Las Vegas, despite temperatures well over 100 degrees. To beat the heat, RSA members LolLioness and Colleen_Byrne decided to brave the mean streets of Vegas for some Luv-It Frozen Custard. Colleen plans to send us more details of her trip tomorrow. Several RSA members had a chance to see Craig perform live this weekend and many are still making their way home. We’re hoping for some more stories and pictures that we can share you.

Craig’s opening act, comedian Randy Kagan, tweeted: Vegas was great. The boss says we’ll be back! http://yfrog.com/3v8rij We’ll let you know when additional Vegas dates are confirmed. As for what Randy’s picture is, we’ll leave that your imagination. Craig’s next live stand up tour begins in July on the East Coast. Meanwhile, he’s back to Los Angeles for another week of all new episodes of the Late Late Show.

Entertainment Weekly profiled Craig a few years ago. It’s fun to see what they were saying about him back then.

Clarification: RSA member bgrhubarb points out that participles may not always be what they seem. Yesterday, we quoted a tweet from professional poker player Phil Hellmuth stating: “…at the Golden Nugget. Out of 2-7 tournament, saw Craig Ferguson w wife. Having a drink.“ We assumed (because of the period in the sentence after the word wife) that Phil meant that he saw Craig with his wife Megan at some point during the evening. However, it is possible that Phil meant that he was with his own wife Katherine at the time he spotted Craig. The only thing we know for sure is that Craig wasn’t having a drink. We weren’t there, so we’re not sure whose wife was involved. And member uebergeek2 added that it’s possible Phil meant that he and his wife went to see Craig’s show after being ousted from the 2-7 tournament, rather than seeing him on the street (perhaps the most likely scenario). This is why collective intelligence is superior when interpreting life 140 characters at a time. As they say in Star Trek. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated.

Tonight on the Late Late Show, Craig’s guests will be Monty Python legend Eric Idle and NFL star turned actor Terry Crewes.