1 of 1- RadioActive
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Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
The one thing about late night TV in the U.S. is that hosts on successful shows generally stay there for years and years and years. So when one of them decides to leave, it's a big deal. James Corden offered up the news he's abandoning his late night show - but not for a year.
The emotional British entertainer broke the news to his audience during the taping of his show Thursday, letting them know to great applause that he signed a contract to stay, but only for another year. After that, he'll be gone. The first announcement drew cheers. The second, groans.
It's not quite as big a deal since he works the lower viewed 12:30 AM time slot, but his carpool karaoke became something of a major hit with viewers and - depending on the guest in the passenger seat - a viral sensation. Never was a big fan, but there's no doubt the man is very talented.
James Corden Addresses ‘Late Late Show’ Departure During Taping: “The Hardest Decision I’ve Ever Had To Make”
Stephen Colbert, Corden's lead-in, tweeted his congratulations and best wishes.
- Hansa
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
I really didn't care for Corden.
- paterson1
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
There has also been speculation that Jimmy Kimmel will leave his show on ABC when his contract finishes at the end of 2022. He has even speculated out loud a few times about leaving the show. Kimmel's program has been on the longest of the current NBC, ABC and CBS late night offerings. Jimmy Fallon signed a five year contract with NBC last year, so he will be around for a while.
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
I vastly preferred Craig Ferguson, Corden's predecessor. His show was one of the most bizarre post-primetime network programs ever, and he conducted it like a satire of late-night TV.
It featured a gay robot skeleton sidekick named Geoff Peterson, voiced by a guy offstage, prepared questions he'd deliberately rip up when a guest came out just to show his contempt for research guiding an interview, a camera he would deliberately shake during his monologue and a tendency to deliberately put his feet up on his desk and stretch out - while interviewing some big star.
It was one of the most surreal and terrific talk shows I've ever seen and I was very sad when it came to an end. To this day, I still have that final episode on my DVR from Dec. 20, 2014 and I watch it whenever I need a laugh.
If only there was some way to bring that incredible satirical show back!
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Thread Starter- Hansa
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
I loved Ferguson and fortunately, a number of his full shows are up on YouTube. Corden, much like Fallon, is too much of a celebrity cheerleader for my taste. The best thing about Letterman (particularly when he was at Late Night) and Ferguson is their disdain for show business and (along with Conan at 12:30) their preference for playing with and against the talk show format. Even Carson, who we now see as ultra-conventional, was the definition of cool and refused to fake it with a guest who didn't interest him and never gushed at a guest. Corden and Fallon strike me as people who really want to be liked by their guests (and the audience) where Carson, Letterman, and Ferguson (and to some degree Jimmy Kimmel) couldn't care less.
Last edited by Hansa (April 29, 2022 8:31 am)
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
Kimmel is only 54 but, quite amazingly, he'll have done his 20th anniversary is coming up next January - his contract is also up around then, I believe. I wouldn't be surprised if decides to pack it in. Remember that when he was in his mid-50s and had done the Tonight Show for twenty years, Carson was taking something like 15 weeks of vacation and was only producing three shows a week in the weeks when he was doing fresh shows (hence the "permanent guest hosts" - first Shandling and Joan Rivers, and then Leno. NBC could agree to that because Carson basically had no competition in the 80s and had huge ratings but it's unlikely any network could agree to a Carson-type deal today.
After 20 years of a 5-show a week grind, it again, wouldn't surprise me if Kimmel decides to either retire entirely or do something less taxing.
Last edited by Hansa (April 29, 2022 8:50 am)
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
Craig Ferguson had a great show. His interview style brought out the real personality in his guests simply because Ferguson had no interview style. Everything was ad lib and this forced guests to do the same and be themselves. Loved the skits and shows he did with Larry King.
I saw Craig live here in Kitchener, quite profane but very funny. He even talked about coming to Kitchener on his TV show in the monologue. He had been nominated for a Grammy Award and he mentioned that unfortunately he wouldn't be at the Grammy's that night because he had an important engagement in Kitchener Ontario. He did this a number of times on his TV show, even got Geoff talking about him coming to Kitchener, and missing not only his show that night but also the Grammy Awards.
The night of his show in Kitchener as I said was great. He had a fantastic new comedian open for him from Milton of all places who was very funny and totally different from Craig. About half way through Ferguson's show he told a joke that kind of bombed. He paused for a long time...looked at the packed auditorium and said...I missed the fuckin' Grammy's for this??? Brought the house down...He must have liked it here because he appeared again one year later.
- mace
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
I am not a fan of any of the late night offerings of so called "Entertainment" I would take Costas, Cavett or the late Tom Snyder over any of them.
- RadioActive
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
Perhaps what was most interesting about Corden is that he brought the U.K. style of what they call "chat shows" over there to North America.
Most U.S.-style late night shows - in fact, I would dare to say all of them - do the same thing. Here's our first guest, we interview them for a while, they move over from the main seat beside the host to the nearby couch and guest #2 comes out. Rinse and repeat.
But Corden tends to bring out everyone at once and let them all go at it at the same time. I'm not entirely sure how successful it's been on this side of the pond but at least it was different. Whether whoever takes over will stick to that format remains to be seen.
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Thread Starter- torontostan
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
RadioActive wrote:
Perhaps what was most interesting about Corden is that he brought the U.K. style of what they call "chat shows" over there to North America.
Most U.S.-style late night shows - in fact, I would dare to say all of them - do the same thing. Here's our first guest, we interview them for a while, they move over from the main seat beside the host to the nearby couch and guest #2 comes out. Rinse and repeat.
But Corden tends to bring out everyone at once and let them all go at it at the same time. I'm not entirely sure how successful it's been on this side of the pond but at least it was different. Whether whoever takes over will stick to that format remains to be seen.
Also he doesn't sit behind a desk when doing the interview
- Brad
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
Speaking of UK shows, he definitely copied the format of Graham Norton. I've come across a lot of his videos on youtube, and this is basically what Corden has done. Norton doesn't have a desk at all, just a chair.
I agree with the assessment that Fallon and Corden want to be liked by their guest. I cannot count the times Corden has introduced his guests project as "brilliant", even if it ended up bombing, such as a movie or TV show. I don't really watch the interviews for that reason, but I have watched some of the games played with guests.
Games such as Spill your Guts or Fill your Guts, Late Late Live Tinder, and Taller or Shorter. He also played games with the audience, such as Were You Paying Attention, and Know for your Row.
The Fill your Guts game was criticized recently by certain cultural or ethnic groups, because if you don't answer the question, you have a eat a "disgusting" food. Well some groups didn't have the same opinion, so I read going forward, punishment foods would be something such as breaking someone's diet. But since Covid, that game hasn't been played, and I doubt it will since he's leaving.
Last edited by Brad (April 29, 2022 7:48 pm)
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Re: Big U.S. Late Night Shake-Up Coming As James Corden Readies An Exit
To be fair, in British English these days "brilliant" is used for just about anything that's even mildly positive.
The "Fill your guts or spill your guts" segment is funny but it was very mainstream, non-ethnic, American-centric with foods considered delicacies in various other countries (particularly Asian) identifed as disgusting and yeah, most white American-born people would find them disgusting, but that ignores the fact that a lot of viewers, even in the US, are from other cultures.
He responded by doing a segment with disgusting British foods, which played better because Corden being British makes it self-deprecating. (The original segment also has a "let's make fun of things that are foreign" vibe that isn't unknown in the UK).
Last edited by Hansa (April 30, 2022 1:59 pm)