When CBS announced that James Corden was going to be the next host of The Late Late Show, the usually fractious US media commentariat united in a common response: Who? No one seemed to have heard of the Gavin & Stacey star and, if they did, they certainly did not anticipate him inheriting one of American television’s talkshow thrones.
Scot Craig Ferguson had built a passionate but small following during his 10-year tenure so, when he decided to step down, rumour was the network would hire a woman or an African American to differentiate from the white men who dominate late-night shows. Instead it chose another Brit who was male, white, had never hosted a talkshow, and was almost unknown on the US side of the Atlantic.
“It seemed like a left-field move,” said Lacey Rose, TV editor of the Hollywood Reporter. “Corden represents something very different. He [didn’t come] up through New York or LA comedy circles. That’s risky. It’s either the stupidest or the most brilliant decision, but we won’t be able to answer that until a few months out.”
It’s a remarkable — and, depending who you speak to, foolhardy or brave — leap for the Londoner, who has moved with his wife Julia and two children to LA. John Oliver, another Brit, hosts his own talkshow on HBO, but he served a long apprenticeship on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
“Launching a show is always daunting, and doing so while having to make a name for yourself as well is incredibly daunting,” said Rose.
Corden, 36, debuts on March 23. CBS revealed the logo and announced that his first guest will be Tom Hanks, giving A-list sheen to the premiere. Beyond that, no one outside of CBS Television City has a clue what to expect when the “tubby kid”, as David Letterman called him, starts beaming into US living rooms.
Compared with the prime-time slots occupied by Letterman, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel, which command greater ratings and resources, Corden’s throne is more a footstool. His slot airs at 12.30am, competing with ABC’s Nightline news show and NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers for a depleted audience of insomniacs and assorted night-owls.
“From what I’ve read, Corden won’t so much try to reinvent the show as simply refashion it to suit his talents,” said Brian Lowry, Variety’s TV critic. “One of the advantages of the 12.30am slot is that the pressure isn’t quite as severe, ratings-wise, and offers more freedom for experimentation.”
CBS, said Lowry, will be more focused on Stephen Colbert taking over from Letterman, who retires in May as the longest-serving, late-night talkshow host in TV history. “[This] should take some of the heat off Corden and allow him to find his footing,” Lowry added.
Corden’s success will depend partly on Colbert sustaining or improving Letterman-like ratings and handing over a fair portion of them each night when his credits roll, as Letterman did for Ferguson.
US viewers will be seeing a performer who has said he discovered his vocation aged three, during his sister’s christening. “I was [put] on a chair so I could see. I looked out at the congregation of about 40 people, but to me it seemed like thousands. And I started to do little dances on the chair and pull faces ... and everyone laughed. Even the vicar. And I vividly remember thinking, ‘this feels amazing!’”
Corden was the second of three children, born to an RAF bandsman father, who became a Christian-book salesman, and a social worker mother. His 2011 autobiography, May I Have Your Attention, Please?, recalls an early and enduring “lust” for attention. It has, he acknowledged, occasionally become a dark compulsion. He skimped studies to pursue drama and started his career with one line in the 1996 West End musical Martin Guerre. This was followed by TV bit parts before landing the role of Timms in Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, performing on stage and then in the 2006 film. Encouraged by Bennett, Corden wrote more of his own material.
With Ruth Jones, his co-star in ITV series Fat Friends, he wrote the BBC hit Gavin & Stacey, which scooped numerous awards, including Baftas. He stumbled in 2009, starring in a dud film, Lesbian Vampire Killers, a dud comedy show, Horne & Corden, and bungling hosting the Brit awards. “One of the steepest and quickest falls from grace in showbiz history,” Mark Lawson wrote in the Guardian. And then, redemption: acclaim for The Wrong Mans, an action-comedy co-produced by the BBC and US online TV provider Hulu; a Tony for his performance in the play One Man, Two Guvnors; and a starring role opposite Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp in Disney’s Into the Woods. In January, the Queen awarded him an OBE for services to drama. And now he’s about to present his own US network show.
The other reason for CBS’s gamble is that late-night TV has reached a crossroads. It is not just the gradual exit of the old guard, Letterman, Ferguson and Jay Leno (Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart recently added his name), but that the web has changed the methods and metrics of success. Online engagement via social media such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as scoring viral hits on YouTube, matter more as overnight ratings decline in importance, said The Wrap, an entertainment industry site.
“A viral video in the morning may be worth as much as strong ratings. Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel are competing for a young, online audience, not with the old tricks — monologues, interviews, skits — but with goofy segments ready-made for viral consumption.”
Even before moving to the US, Corden had amassed more than 4.5 million Twitter followers. “If Corden can increase Ferguson’s audience — or even just draw a younger crowd — that will be a plus for CBS,” said The Wrap.
British viewers who associate Corden, not always fondly, with mouthy, occasionally off-colour jokes may be surprised by the version that introduces himself to Americans, judging by what he recently told the Television Critics Association. “So much of what you see and read and are polluted by is not pleasant right now. If we can make a show that reaches out to people and reminds them there are still wonderful things ... I’d love to make a warm show that’s really fun.”
His fate will hinge on it being tweetable, Facebook-sharable, YouTube-uploadable, viral fun.
