It was less than two years ago, during a game of musical chairs being played among the late-night talk show hosts, that CBS announced the new host of The Late Late Show would be James Corden. When I first read about it some time later, I said to myself: the Baker gets a show? How did that happen? Tonight we will talk about how that happened, and why it was a good thing.
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Tonight’s feature presentation: The Late Late Show With James Corden
Bear with me. There is some history to all of this.
In the 1970s through the early 1980s, Tom Snyder hosted The Tomorrow Show on NBC, which at that time owned the iconic brands Today, Tonight, and Tomorrow. Then along came a newcomer to the late night circuit named David Letterman. His short-lived morning talk/variety show was widely considered a failure (especially by himself), but he got a second chance in the late night hours.
Letterman had long been a favorite of his mentor and friend Johnny Carson. In a 1981 contract negotiation between Carson Productions and NBC, Carson got control of the time slot immediately following his Tonight Show. The Tomorrow Show was out, and in 1982 Late Night With David Letterman, partly owned by Carson Productions, was in. Snyder was offered the time slot after Late Night, ie. starting at 1:30AM, but declined the offer.
Fast forward to 1995.
The so-called War for Late Night was in large part triggered by Johnny Carson’s retirement. Letterman had coveted The Tonight Show hosting gig throughout most of his adult life, and was clearly Carson’s personal choice to get the job. But Jay Leno had been actively campaigning for the job, allegedly under the table, and NBC gave it to him. Letterman left NBC (he would often joke that band leader Paul Shaffer had been fired for stealing office supplies, and Letterman quit NBC in a show of solidarity with Shaffer). Letterman landed at CBS, starting up The Late Show with David Letterman, going head to head with Leno’s Tonight Show at 11:30.
So anyway, Letterman’s contract with CBS gave him the rights to produce a show in the 12:30 time slot following Late Night. Letterman had long been a fan of Snyder, and so Letterman’s production company Worldwide Pants created The Late Late Show with Tom Snyder. There are many sidebar channels to the whole story, including the offer to Garry Shandling to host this new show; Shandling turned it down and went on to do The Larry Sanders Show. But we don’t have time here to explore every twist and turn.
By 1999, Snyder’s term on The Late Late Show was over. Some reports say that he left on his own accord; others say that CBS forced him out, wanting a new host to appeal to a younger demographic.
And so Craig Kilborn took over hosting The Late Late Show, leaving behind The Daily Show to its new host Jon Stewart. In the summer of 2004, Kilborn announced that he would leave the show before the end of the year. That led to a series of guest hosts, some of whom were being auditioned in real time for a permanent seat. The job ended up going to Craig Ferguson, who took over The Late Late Show full time in 2005. Ferguson had been recommended by Peter Lassally, a long-time ally and executive producer for both Carson and Letterman.
As time went by, Ferguson had written into his CBS contract, that he would be first in line to take over The Late Show when Letterman retired. When the time came, CBS instead chose to hire Stephen Colbert as Letterman’s replacement. Ferguson’s buy-out for being passed over reportedly put $10 million in his pocket. Although his contract expired in June of 2014, Ferguson agreed to extend his stay until December of that year, to make for an orderly transition. Letterman would no longer be involved, as Worldwide Pants would not be producing the next iteration of the show. Control of the time slot, and the show, reverted to CBS.
And that brings us to the announcement on September 8, 2014. CBS announced that the new host of The Late Late Show, taking over from Craig Ferguson, would be James Corden.
And the audience went: Who? What?
In December of that year, Corden got world-wide exposure as The Baker, in the Disney movie Into the Woods, starring Meryl Streep. I was fresh from seeing that movie when I first read about his being the designated host-in-waiting of The Late Late Show. I wasn’t alone in wondering how this guy had come out of nowhere to host such a show. The Baker suddenly gets a show?
As it turns out, he wasn’t unknown, especially in his native England. Since 1996, Corden has been busy on television, stage, and film. From a hit series Gavin & Stacey, to hosting awards shows, to a couple of episodes of Doctor Who, and many other things, James Corden has been constantly busy writing, producing, and acting. He even made it on Broadway, winning the 2012 Tony for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a play, for One Man, Two Guvnors.
Since his tenure on The Late Late Show began in March 2015, Corden himself has said out loud numerous times that everyone thought CBS was making a huge mistake by hiring him, and that he himself had the same doubts. As did I.
Wrong.
His edition of The Late Late Show has been very successful, and for good reason.
Who better to describe how James Corden ended up in this seat, than James himself. CBS president and CEO Les Moonves launches a Willy Wonka-style contest to find a host, and the winner enlists several celebrities to help him train for the job:
Usually in the show’s early moments, James introduces that night’s celebrities, each of whom is in a color-coded dressing room before coming out. Orange. Red. Blue. Sometimes it’s just a few words of chat, sometimes the celebrity’s entourage is doing something interesting in the background, or a scripted bit plays out.
When the guests are formally introduced to come on set, they have to navigate down a set of stairs from the back of the audience, coming forward. From the very first episode, I said: this is going to be trouble, especially for women wearing high heels. Sure enough, on the night that Katie Couric appeared, this happened:
Corden seemed be genuinely shocked, having no idea that he was witnessing a planned stunt in real time.
One of the show’s signature pieces is called Carpool Karaoke. The premise is that James needs another person in his car in order to get to work quickly using the carpool lanes. Each time a different celebrity shows up, and together they sing that person’s songs while the car is in motion. Among the celebrities have been Stevie Wonder, Justin Bieber, Sia, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Martin, One Direction, Elton John, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, and more. A classic episode featured Adele:
Here’s a “best of” collection:
Aside from the celebrities themselves, what makes this piece work is the sheer joy on the part of James Corden. It’s infectious; you can’t help but play along, and want to be part of the fun.
Corden frequently ventures outside of Stage 56 at the CBS Television City complex, not just for Carpool Karaoke, but bits recorded on the streets, at random people’s homes near the studio, or in this case, invading a another CBS show:
He didn’t have to go far for that piece; The Price is Right is recorded in another studio downstairs from his own home base. But it seems that Corden’s stature has risen far enough that he can take over the set of another network’s show:
Back in his own studio, another recurring feature is the re-creation of a celebrity’s movie career, like this early segment with Tom Hanks:
And then there’s the semi-regular segment called Celebrity Noses. Corden holds up close-up photos of noses, and the object is to guess whose nose that is. Well, theoretically. The problem is that various issues get in the way of the game: technical glitches where the wrong graphic or theme music appears, or some other thing that goes wrong. He never actually gets to play the game, before time for the segment is up. The fun is in Corden’s increasing frustration at not being able to get past the hurdles and actually play Celebrity Noses. Along the way he chews out band leader Reggie Watts, or the production crew, or whoever he thinks is to blame for the problems:
I keep saying, nobody works harder to “sell” a bit than James Corden.
Sometimes he goes into the studio audience to play a game called “None of the Above”. Audience members are shown a video clip, and given four possible choices for what happens next. The correct answer in each case is “None of the Above”. The first audience member often gets it wrong:
The show’s opening sometimes varies. There could be a bit presented as a cold opening, or Reggie Watts and the band playing the show’s theme song before Corden comes out from behind the curtain to do a monologue. And sometimes the opening just doesn’t seem to have an ending, like this Groundhog Day edition:
(If you didn’t get the reference, look up the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day).
Like I said, nobody works harder to sell a bit. And it’s always a good time.
Tune in some time, or set your PVR for 12:35AM weeknights.
top comments for Sunday May 29, 2016
From your diarist, lotac:
In “When did the United States get so damn uptight?” front-pager Mark E Anderson asks the question: if you’re old enough to fight, vote, marry, or enter contracts, why can’t you have a beer? Timothy Shannon turns the question upside down with “Maybe 18 isn’t old enough to fight and die?”
top mojo for saturday may 28, 2016
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