Craig Ferguson, the Scottish comedian, is being tipped to succeed David Letterman, the king of American chat-show hosts, on a salary of up to £15m a year.

Ferguson, who was born in Glasgow and began his professional life as stand-up alter ego Bing Hitler, last week crowned his ascension into American popular culture by hosting the Washington press corps annual dinner for the president of the United States.

Entertaining the 3,000 dignitaries at the press annual event, called George Bush's Last Supper, is said to be the toughest dinner-club comedy gig in the world.

The 45-year-old Scot, the first “foreigner” invited to grill the leader of the free world, was the “Goldilocks” choice - not too hot, not too cold, and, according to most critics, Ferguson got it just right.

Perhaps even more significantly, it has put Ferguson, who hosts The Late Late Show, into the front row of contenders to take over the chat show hosted by his CBS stablemate Letterman when the veteran compere bows out gracefully over the next few years.

Letterman, who earns about £20m a year, was ranked America's third most powerful chat show host by Forbes magazine in 2007. The 61-year-old's programme, The Late Show, is broadcast immediately before Ferguson's and attracts an audience of about 5m. Ferguson's The Late Late Show's attracts about 1.9m viewers.

“[Ferguson] has already made his mark, taking the TV monologue to new levels with an underlying story,” said Ben Alba, an American television historian and an authority on chat shows. “But he is only just starting out here. He is making up his own rules: It's the immigrant experience.”

An American television insider said that Ferguson, who launched his own television production company recently, was now Letterman's natural heir-in-waiting: “Craig has now risen to the top of the shortlist of contenders who may replace Dave when he retires over the next few years.

“He has overcome his Scottishness and was seen as a real crowd-pleaser and yet, like Dave, retains his quirky individuality. No-one knows when Dave may bow out, but now television executives have a proven heir at hand and in house.”

Philip McGrade, one of Ferguson's scriptwriters, said that Americans had warmed to his confessional style and were also more receptive to working-class comics than were British audiences.

“Americans love the accent, love the Scots, celebrate and welcome an immigrant,” he said. “It is a bigger country, a bigger market, much more competitive, but if you can do the job, they don't care what school you went to or any of that.”

McGrade added that Ferguson, who recently became an American citizen, was finally poised for the big time.

“After 30 years in showbusiness it is beginning to look like he might be about to crack America, to become an overnight success, grilling the president eight weeks after becoming a citizen,” he said.

“This was the White House correspondents' dinner, an annual event where the people who cover Washington and the people in power take a night off and hire a comic to make them laugh. It's a tough room to play: 2,500 journalists in a venue the size of an aircraft hangar.”

Ferguson himself seemed almost relieved to have got away with the dinner antics. Having teased Dick Cheney - “he is already moving out of his residence: it takes longer than you think to pack up a dungeon” - the vice-president came backstage to see him later.

“He patted me on the back and said, 'Enjoy your [tax] audit,'" said Ferguson. “He is funny for an evil guy.”

The televised event was a high-water mark for the comic, whose first attempts to export his gifts met public indifference, followed by alcoholism and divorce.

After honing his skills as a drummer in the Glasgow punk band the Bastards of Hell with the actor Peter Capaldi, he toured as the standup comedian Bing Hitler and was infamous for violent confrontations with hecklers. He went on to present the BBC2 series The Ferguson Theory.

After a handful of successful guest slots on American TV sitcoms, where he spoke in an ludicrously posh English accent “to make up for generations of English actors doing crap Scottish accents”, in 2004 the CBS network made him host of The Late Late Show - aptly, as it starts nightly at 12.30 am - with a salary of £4m a year.

It stuttered along with a stale mix of scripted jokes and second-rate guests until he switched to a more personal improvised style. He won an Emmy after choosing to devote the show's 15-minute opening monologue to tougher subjects such as alcoholism and the death of his father, leavened with serious wit.

It has paid off: last month Ferguson overtook his main rival, NBC's The Late Show with Conan O'Brien, in the ratings.

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