On April 28, 2014, Craig Ferguson announced that he would be stepping down from his version of the show at the end of the year. 25 days earlier, however, Ferguson's boss, late-night icon David Letterman, announced that he would be stepping down as host of The Late Show in the spring of 2015. Letterman, through his Worldwide Pants production company, owned both of CBS's late-night gabfests. It was he who approved of the hiring of not just Ferguson, but both of his predecessors, Tom Snyder and Craig Kilborn. With his decision to step away, it was CBS and CBS alone who had the power to select his Late Show successor (it took them literally a week to settle on Stephen Colbert in that regard), as well as decide how to handle a Late Late Show that was now solely in their possession, too.
Long before Ferguson decided to step away, rumors persisted that CBS was looking to replace him; at one point, there was speculation that Chelsea Handler was about to sign up to take his place, but that never happened. Ferguson's decision to step away meant that CBS didn't have to fire him, they just needed someone to fill the chair.
Ferguson, of course, got his hosting job in an unusual way: His predecessor, Kilborn, after months of negotiations that, depending upon who you talk to, were either going well or not so well, decided that he would not renew his contract that was just weeks away from expiring, and hosted two more weeks of shows; all of this took place in August of 2004. The bosses at the network and Worldwide Pants were stunned; they didn't have an immediate replacement, so, from September to November, they had different celebrities come on as guest hosts, using these shows as on-air auditions. After six weeks, four of the subs were selected as finalists: Ferguson, Michael Ian Black, D.L. Hughley, and Total Request Live host Damien Fahey. Each finalist got a week of shows to impress their would-be bosses. Ferguson, who went first, was the one who ended up being hired.
Ferguson's departure was less acrimonious than Kilborn's, and, so, CBS took their time to find his replacement. One day, James Corden and his friend, British TV producer Ben Winston, came to CBS to pitch a new sitcom. The network bosses passed, but, at that same meeting, offered Corden The Late Late Show, with Winston as his executive producer. He accepted, and CBS announced his hiring on September 8, 2014 (though, the media was reporting this a month prior).
Corden was definitely an unknown to American audiences. Most of his success had come in his native United Kingdom, where, in the late 2000s, he co-created, co-wrote, and co-starred in the sitcom Gavin & Stacey with friend Ruth Jones. His performance in the show was critically acclaimed, seeing him win a BAFTA Television Award for Best Comedy Performance. He did have success in the United States, though; in 2012, he became a Tony Award winner for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play for his well-received performance in the one-man show, One Man, Two Guvnors. He had begun the performance in London's West End the year before, making the trip across the pond to New York City to continue it. He had also guest-starred in two episodes of Doctor Who during the Matt Smith era, his performances in those also being praised.
Outside of that, his hiring drew a bigger "Who?" than even Ferguson's. Corden himself only expected to last six months in the job, opting to rent his housing in Los Angeles. He made two cameo appearances prior to his taking over: One on Ferguson's third-to-last show on December 17, 2014, and the January 23, 2015 episode guest hosted by Judd Apatow, where Corden acted as a job shadow, wanting to "learn from [Apatow's] mistakes."
Corden's Late Late Show began on March 23, 2015. His version was the only one with a house band; it was fronted by comedy musician Reggie Watts throughout its run. Corden's version was also the only one in which Worldwide Pants had no involvementnote , being instead produced by Ben Winston's 73 Fulwell. It was also the only one to win Emmy Awards (Ferguson himself got an Emmy nomination during his time hosting the show, and the episode in which Desmond Tutu was a guest won a Peabody Award, but, it was overlooked for the most part). This version also garnered the show's highest-ever ratings.
The secret to the success of Corden's Late Late Show was relying heavily on bits that would go viral outside of the initial broadcast. One of these would be acting out select scenes from an actor's most famous films with said actor (on the very first show, Corden did this with Tom Hanks). Another notable bit was "Crosswalk the Musical", where Corden and a local theater company would act out scenes from famous musicals in an L.A. crosswalk not too far from Television City while cars waited for a light change. Another notable segment was "Celebrity Noses", where Corden would attempt to show close-up photos of celebrity's noses, and have the audience guess who the celebrity was, but something always went wrong, and the segment was never done (which, of course, was the joke). He would also send his parents to various events - such as National Football League games played in London - to interview people for the show. Two segments got their own spinoffs: One of them was "Drop the Mic", where Corden would engage in a (scripted) rap battle with one of his guests, airing as a series on TNT, then moving to TBS, from 2017 to 2019. Corden served as an executive producer, appearing in just two episodes of the series.
But the most famous segment was "Carpool Karaoke", where Corden would drive around Los Angeles (and sometimes other cities) with famous singers, talking with them and singing their biggest hits with them as the songs played on the vehicle's sound system. Among the guests in the segment were Adele (whose first appearance in 2016 - taped in London - remains the most-watched video on the show's YouTube account), Justin Bieber, and Paul McCartney, with whom Corden did a primetime special taped in Liverpool in 2018. In 2016, Apple began airing a series based on the segment on its Apple Music service, moving to Apple TV+ in 2022. In the series, various celebrities are paired together driving around and singing along to famous pop songs. The segment sparked imitators, one of them
being done by members of the US Olympic Swim Team as they trained in Atlanta prior to traveling to Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 Summer Olympics. Carpool Karaoke: The Series has won five Emmy Awards.
For one week in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2022, the show did a week of tapings in London. The 2017, 2018, and 2019 shows were taped at Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, while the 2022 shows were filmed at Freemasons' Hall. (There were no London shows in 2020 and 2021 because of, obviously, the COVID-19 Pandemic). Ferguson had also done shows abroad: From Paris in 2011, and Scotland in 2012.
On April 28, 2022, Corden announced that he had signed a final, one-year contract extension, intending to step down in 2023, citing a desire to return to London with his wife and children. In February 2023, CBS announced that Corden would not be replaced, meaning that the show would end with his last episode. A Stephen Colbert-produced revival of the 2013-2017 Comedy Central panel game show @Midnight, titled After Midnight, replaced it. It premiered on January 16, 2024, hosted by young comedian Taylor Tomlinson.
Corden's final episode - as well as the Late Late Show series finale - aired on April 27, 2023. The final guests were Corden's friend, Harry Styles, and Will Ferrell. A primetime special aired earlier in the evening looked back on moments in the show's history, as well as the last Carpool Karaoke segment, featuring Adele, and Corden and Tom Cruise joining a local production of The Lion King. Unlike the tenures of Snyder, Kilborn, and Ferguson, Corden's Late Late Show aired new episodes from Monday to Thursday, with Friday's airing being a rerun. Corden also taped his iteration from Studio 56 at Television City, except for a time in 2020, where the COVID pandemic forced him to be all alone in the garage of his Los Angeles home (there was a brief period in 2021 where he had to go back to the garage, due to coming into contact with a production staff member who tested positive for the virus).
On the week of the final episode, the magazine Los Angeles published an article about the show's finances. Specifically, the fact that the network was losing $20 million a year on it (CBS was spending $60-65 million, but only making back $45 million), so, it's a good thing that Corden decided to leave when he did, or CBS may have eventually made the choice for him by axing the show altogether, or threatening to cut his salary, staff, etc..
Tropes associated with The Late Late Show with James Corden include:
- Ambiguously Human: James Corden's travails trying to do "Celebrity Noses" involve him butting heads with a stressed digitized British voice that plays at helping him with technical difficulties where, somewhere down the line, he directly questioned if the other speaker was really human.
- The Announcer: Reggie Watts would introduce James at the start of every show on camera, always saying that he was "All the way from [insert city here]." Reggie would also sing the titles of various segments. An unidentified off-screen announcer would do the billboards (The Late Late Show with James Corden, sponsored by...).
- Awesome Mc Cool Name: James Corden allows for the idea that "Mike Esperanto", President Trump's miswritten name for his Secretary of Defense, is a cooler name than "Mike Esper".
- "Basic Instinct" Legs-Crossing Parody: Michael Douglas reprised his role as Detective Nick Curran in a Basic Instinct spoof, with James himself replacing Sharon Stone. After repeated leg crossing moments, Douglas eventually has to throw up.
- Battle Rapping: The "Drop The Mic" segment on James' run eventually got picked up by TBS for its own show, hosted by Method Man and Hailey Baldwin.
- Bilingual Bonus: When Sebastian Stan made an appearance with his teenage celebrity crush Sharon Stone, he started flirting with her in his native Romanian. His pickup line of choice was "Ce faci?",which translates to "How you doing?" Smooth.
- Camp Straight: James is a musical theater star who loves 1990's Boy Bands and gushes over the likes of Lady Gaga and Madonna. If he wasn't married to a woman with three kids, you'd be forgiven if you assumed he was as gay as the day is long.
- Cold Open: Unusually for a late night talk show, James does his monologue before the title sequence.
- Companion Show: James gently tweaked CBS for their decision to fill the summer gap in the 11:35 slot between David Letterman's retirement and Stephen Colbert's debut with reruns of various primetime dramas, by doing cold open sketches with a Talking Dead-style aftershow for The Mentalist, Talking Mentalist. It later got an aftershow of its own, Talking Talking Mentalist (in which they talk about the previous Talking Mentalist), and a successor in Talking Hawaii Five-0, complete with bonus Chris Hardwick.
- Even the Guys Want Him:
- Speaking of guest Chris Pine:James: I don't know whether to shake his hand or lick his face.
- Matt Bomer evokes a similar reaction (complete with fantasy sequence!).
- Exaggerated with Jeff Goldblum. Behold "thank u, jeff", a spoof of Ariana Grande's "thank u, next".
- Speaking of guest Chris Pine:
- Fetishes Are Weird: Discussed in one segment with Alison Brie. Corden brought up how Alison has a devoted fandom of people with foot fetishes, obviously with the intent to make a joke of it. Alison responded by actually defending these fans, calling foot fetishes "cool", and proudly showing her feet to Corden's audience. When Corden continued to say that he thinks foot fetish acts are gross, Alison responded with a rather blunt Armor-Piercing Question that Corden couldn't find an answer to.Alison: Yeah, but who's it hurting?
- Guest Host: Corden's had several stars fill in for him on occasion, but all-time favorite guest Jeff Goldblum's go-round on December 12, 2019 deserves special mention with an elaborate opening musical number about being this trope, a monologue that included a Take That! at Carpool Karaoke (actually his second after that July's "Drop the Mic" rap battle with Corden) and an Enforced Plug for his Disney+ show The World According to Jeff Goldblum, and the "Animals Riding Animals" game being changed to "Animals Riding Jeff Goldblum". He and his jazz band The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra also served as the musical guests.
- Hidden Depths:
- Despite his major role in the musical Into the Woods, celebrities in the Carpool Karaoke are usually baffled when James busts out a hell of a tune.
- James' dad is surprisingly good at playing the sax, as evidenced in his jam with Anderson.Paak.
- Idiot Ball: People who pick anything but "D: None of the above" in the studio audience game called "None of the Above."Audience member: I'm going to go with "B".
James: I'm going to make sure you'd like to go with "B" even though the game is called "None of the Above."
Audience member: Can I change my answer?
James: Oh, no, noooo, you can stick with B if you want! - Oh, Crap!:
- Eddie Redmayne's reaction when James shows a clip of him singing "Memory" from their high school years.Eddie: I knew coming onto this show was a bad idea!
- Natalie Portman reacts similarly when her old environmental pop group, the Earth Patrol Kids, are shown.
- Eddie Redmayne's reaction when James shows a clip of him singing "Memory" from their high school years.
- Old Shame: James loves to invoke this by bringing up an embarrassing early project/experience of one of his guests and showing a clip or picture (much like Graham Norton, whose show's format is very similar to James'). The reaction of the guest usually elicits an Oh, Crap! moment.
- Opening Credits Cast Party: The titles - which were the same throughout Corden's run - feature James and Reggie dancing and having fun in various places throughout Los Angeles, as well as riding a lowrider bicycle and sitting in a lowrider car as the front end bounced.
- Painful Rhyme: While performing a recap, at rhyming "Disney Plus" with "John Legend was named the sexi-est", Alicia Keys pauses and grins apologetically.
- Please Subscribe to Our Channel: On the June 8, 2016 episode, Corden brings up that Wayne Brady had made a joke about a website called YourMomMassagesMe.com on the last episode, and learned it was network policy that CBS had to buy any fictitious domain name mentioned on his show so it doesn't get squatted by someone else. However, Corden agreed that this was an opportunity that they just had to seize, so they made it a real site where you could upload pictures of yourself and your mom to place in a picture of a stick figure massaging another. His discussion of it then turned into a ticket plug, suggesting that you should take your mom to a taping, and massage each other there. Then, it turned into a plug for his Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, which turned into an Overly Long Gag in which Corden listed off every single social networking service or app he is supposedly on.
- Police Lineup: A skit had James playing a man in a lineup with three conspicuously good-looking, chiseled, muscular men, initially denying it, then liking the sound of being recognized as such and trying to match the victim's descriptions.
- Rail Enthusiast: The whole joke in the Fifty Shades of Grey parody with Jamie Dornan is that James's deep secret is his enthusiasm for model trains rather than BDSM.
- Retool: The format of Corden's version veers closer in style to British chat shows (such as The Graham Norton Show) than the typical U.S. standards, by having multiple guests come out and be interviewed together for the duration of the show, rather than having them come out one at a time and sometimes having the first guest leave. He also doesn't do his interviews from behind a desk either, preferring to pull up a chair to the left of the guests' couch instead.
- Running Gag: Reggie Watts announces James as being from a different city at the start of each episode. In recent episodes, he has begun saying a city, but attaching it to a completely different location. For example, he introduced James as being from Milwaukee, Illinois. There is no town in Illinois called Milwaukee.
- When Jeff Goldblum served as Guest Host, Watts announced him as coming "All the way from inside a spacecraft that landed in a swimming pool".
- Serial Escalation: Sting and James performed a sketch where they played rival singing waiters engaged in a war of oneupsmanship with each coming back with a more ludicrous way of performing for the restaurant's patrons.
- Side Effects Include...: Invoked by a recurring sketch, showing side effects of various activities.
- Teasing the Substitute Teacher: Discussed in Guest Host Jeff Goldblum's monologue. He can't be fooled by anyone in the audience into just ordering pizza for everybody instead of following the show's "lesson plan".
- Title Theme Tune: Sung by Reggie:"The Late Late Shoooooooooooow
The Late Late Show
Whoo!
The Late Late Shoooooooooooow
The Late Late Sho-o-ow
It's The Late Late Show!" - Troubled Production:
- "I smell a good time, you smell a good time: it's time for Celebrity Noses!" It is ostensibly a game of some description, but something always goes wrong (such as Reggie having issues getting the theme music right, the intro graphic glitching, James losing the cards, Reggie insisting the segment be broadcast online via Periscope even though it's going to be on TV eventually, "human error" causing intros for other segments to come up instead, and then the backdrop spontaneously catching on fire), and then they run out of time and can't even play it. The lead-up to the series finale featured a "Behind the Noses" documentary to chronicle all the past attempts. Corden does try to get one final attempt in before the series finale, only to be informed that The Talk had stolen the segment and done it that morning (revealing that it involved the audience guessing celebrities based on their noses and clues with nose-related puns), and that Corden couldn't sue because they beat them to it (though both shows being owned and aired by CBS probably doesn't help matters much either).
- Also, one of the writers will play a fictional expert in some field (from science to even gift-wrapping) with the name of a European soccer player (especially those who played in the English Premier League) to do a segment towards the end of the show. Unfortunately, Reggie and the band don't stop playing, causing there to be no time left for the segment. This usually results in the "expert" taking their anger out on James, to the point that they storm out of the studio, or James has to call for security.
- A segment where James is to take questions about him or the show from the audience is always thrown off by someone asking something irrelevant. Once, it was nothing but questions about the parking situation at CBS Studio City.
- "I smell a good time, you smell a good time: it's time for Celebrity Noses!" It is ostensibly a game of some description, but something always goes wrong
- While You Were in Diapers: One of Jeff Goldblum's responses to Corden's insults, several of which mock his age (he was 66 at the time), in their Drop the Mic rap battle is "When you were born, I was already 25/Which means I've been a sex symbol longer than you've been alive!"
- Would Not Hurt A Child: A professional Manchester United player on a field against 100 kids when the host takes to the field: "I'm afraid to hurt the kids... but I'm not afraid to hurt James."
