Len Goodman doesn't do a nightly show though, Corden will want to be filmed daily to keep his opening monologue fresh and up to date.

Corden also has a young child with another on the way, where as Goodmans has long since flown the nest.


I'm sure he enjoys it, I think Jason Bradbury also 'enjoyed' doing Don't Scare the Hare, they have to say that cause you wouldn't watch it if he said he dreaded going to work and couldn't wait for the series to be over.

Take anything a media personality says with a pinch of salt.

Also I doubt Corden is stupid enough to sign a 3 year contract, contracts like this only normally exist for film franchises, not format panel shows. It's not even likely that Sky have commissioned a further 3 series yet.

Maybe it could be a co-production with a channel here (Sky or Comedy Central) and they are filming it in over here? Very huge long shot but you never know.

Not likely, they would struggle to get guests

True. Ferguson takes pre-taping to the extreme, sometimes pre-taping shows over a month in advance. Other hosts pre-tape a day or two in advance, but nothing like Ferguson does. But pre-taped shows notoriously get lower ratings because they are not topical and the viewers can tell. For that reason I suspect CBS are going to insist Corden tapes daily, maybe allowing him to tape two shows on Thursday as that’s quite common with these types of show (both Fallon and Letterman do this).
But if Corden really wants to continue hosting ALOTO then its easily do-able what with something like 10 weeks off from The Late Late Show each year, he’ll just need to agree with Sky to record an entire series over a single week. This is what Piers Morgan agreed with ITV and his Life Stories series while he had his nightly CNN show in the US.


For too many reason to go into, that’s never going to happen. The general consensus in the industry is that Corden will tape his Late Late Show at the same CBS studios in Los Angeles as Ferguson does/did his show, just maybe not on the same soundstage.

The difference between Life Stories and ALOTO is that Life Stories can easily tape over a week because it's a talk show whereas ALOTO would need to schedule guests, write gags etc which easy to do on a weekly basis but not as easy to do over a course of a week. I would not be surprised if Corden bows out, I'm sure they could replace him with another comedian like Jack Whitehall.

I imagine the New Late Late Show will continue to broadcast from LA, I imagine the city of LA won't want to lose another late show to NY but the competition for guests in NY alone would be too much whereas LA only has Kimmel and Conan at the moment.

With enough planning, you could easily record a series of ALOTO over a single week. You’d just need several months of pre-production done beforehand and then go into a week of recoding. It all depends on how much Sky still want Corden to host, if they really do then they’ll make it work around his schedule.


Although not a late night talk show don’t for get ‘Ellen’, her daytime talkshow is recorded in LA too (on the WB lot, same as Conan) and arguable gets more high profile guests than Kimmel and Conan.
But I do agree, I think its in everyone’s interest to keep the NY/LA balance just right, other wise they will all be fighting over the same guests and the viewers will see the same guests on every talkshow within a couple of days of each other.

CBS have confirmed James Corden will debut his Late Late Show on 9th March, nearly 3 months after Craig Fergusons final show. Also confirmed was that the show will remain in LA and that British producer Ben Winston (The X Factor) will make the move stateside with Corden. And that it’s likely guest hosts will be used to fill the gap between Ferguson and Corden.

http://variety.com/2014/tv/news/cbs-...a-1201337374/#

Craig has always had the entire month of August off as vacation time. He also regularly tours his stand up routine so he takes quite a bit of time off throughout the year. Ferguson has made it clear for 2 years that he is bored and if you go back 2 years to around May 2012 you could see his heart was not in it anymore. No matter what he does, I don't think he will ever find a team of people around him that will literally let him do what he wants again. I also think he is one of those people that needs this kind of show to let off steam. I think once it is gone he will miss it more than he realizes it.

You’re right, although with the exception of a sometimes extended summer break (3 weeks) Craig Ferguson does just about as many ‘new’ shows per year as the other late night hosts, but he pre-records a lot of shows. And I mean a lot. Not only does he often record 5 days worth of shows over 3 or 4 days, he also pre-records some shows for broadcast several weeks later.

I was in LA in August, but wasn’t able to go to a Late Late Show recording as Craig was off for the entire month (I did get to see Conan though), with a week of pre-records and 3 weeks or reruns. However, I did get to see Craig Ferguson at a recording of his new game show Celebrity Name Game. He was a genuinely nice guy, just how he appears on screen.

The thing with Craig Ferguson is that, by his own admission, he’s not a talk show host. He’s a writer, actor, producer, director, stand up comedian, and now a game show host too. Plus he was of course in a punk back with Peter Capaldi. Basically, I think he gets bored doing the same thing, so has decided to move on. But I agree, I think he’ll miss the daily talk show. Although there are rumours he’s going to host a new night evening talk show (at 7pm) in 2015 or 2016. Whether he’ll have the creative freedom he’s had a CBS, I doubt it. CBS have basically let him have complete control because they gave the 12:30am slot over to David Letterman’s management, who seems to have just let Ferguson do whatever he likes (resulting in some of the most original television in its genre).

I'm not saying he shouldn't move on but for someone that talked about not wanting the job badly, if he signed on for another 2 years he should have given 2 more years of high quality shows. There was a point in early to mid 2013 where it was extremely bad, even I struggled to get through the shows. Literally the same jokes every night and the same homosexual jokes and dirty talk throughout. Even in 2012 he still made some effort after the new deal in place however I think after the new studio came in that's when a lot of viewers pinpointed the decline. I know many times throughout the years his show was often rated PG by CBS and that's linked with what I really liked about the show.

He was always a litttle dirty but it was hinted at, he was often at his funniest when he was left to his own devices and had to rely on himself for the cold opens, monologues and tweetmail segments. I'm not blaming the Geoff character but I think over the last few years Craig has relied on it a bit too much. I know long term fans gave Josh Robert Thompson who voices Geoff a lot of hassle over the years for the sex talk and the repetitive nature of the show but surely that lies at Craig's door. It's Craig that's allowing it and Craig that usually starts it. I just think he needs to freshen up a bit but I do feel like for the last 2 years he should have put 100% effort in like he always did and of course pretaping shows I'm sure just adds to things. You can't be fully creative and topical in a taped show infact I think he is taping more shows soon. It really isn't that long before he is done.

CBS haven't really cared about 12.37 before but with the arrival of Colbert and Corden next year, it seems they want to challenge Fallon and Meyers plus the show now is under their control so they'll be making more money

Colbert might be difficult against Fallon, Fallon has been a huge success, however Meyers will be easy pickings for Cordon, Seth hasn't done that well and was much better off staying on Weekend Update

I imagine for CBS, the challenge isn't beating The Tonight Show because that has rarely happened but to bring in a younger audience to The Late Show.

Corden will not be allowed to do half the things Ferguson does.

The final few weeks of guests have been announced for Ferguson’s Late Late show before the guest hosts begin and then James Corden takes over.
I looks very much like a ‘friends of the show’, marathon with fans favourites returning to say good bye. Interesting choice having Jay Leno as his final guest, but I know they are friends despite supposing to be rivals.

Mo 12/1: Lisa Kudrow, Dominic Monaghan
Tu 12/2: Kristen Bell, Henry Winkler
We 12/3: Don Cheadle, Mary McCormack
Th 12/4: Steve Carell, Max Greenfield
Fr 12/5: Drew Carey, Cat Deeley

Mo 12/8: Carrie Fisher, Dave Attell
Tu 12/9: Michael Sheen, Ariel Tweto
We 12/10: Mila Kunis
Th 12/11: Kunal Nayyar
Fr 12/12: Rashida Jones

Mo 12/15: Jon Hamm, Tim Meadows
Tu 12/16: Larry King, Angela Kinsey
We 12/17: Betty White, Thomas Lennon
Th 12/18: Jim Parsons
Fr 12/19: Jay Leno

On a related note, Comedy Central have confirmed Stephen Colbert’s final ‘Colbert Report’ (ahead of him leaving for the Late Show) will be 18th December, the day before Fergusons last show.

A coded insult no doubt aimed squarely at Letterman/CBS

That was my thought as well, although I thought it was more of a statement being made by Ferguson about his view on the current late night situation in general.
He’s made a lot of jokes about Leno being ‘replaced by a younger model’ for no real reason by NBC in the past. Plus, as you say, he knows Leno and Letterman’s rivalry so its probably a bit of a shot at Letterman and CBS too for being passed over for the Late Show job.

But this is why I’ve grown to like Craig Ferguson, he does things his way, and he’s been fortunate enough to be allowed to get away with it by CBS. As has already been said in this thread, I highly doubt CBS are going to adopt lack of management with James Corden. I suspect they will be all over him creatively, desperately trying to create their own ‘Jimmy Fallon’ with him – which may or may not actually work.

I think towards the end, the main problem with Craig's show is that it stopped being managed at all. I heard in a podcast he had with JRT (aka the robot skeleton) that he wanted the show to be 100% improvised which is a worthy idea considering the other late night shows are the exact opposite. Unfortunately in practice without his well crafted monologues and amusing sketches or puppetry (a lot of writers left around the time Geoff came in) there wasn't much left.

I wonder if Corden will keep his shot gun celebration for a successful joke.

The US audience will have a different relationship with guns than a UK audience.


Does anyone in the US do that kind of celebration? Does anyone here know what i'm on about?

I actually watched an episode of the Late Late Show last night, one from last week with guest Jimmy Kimmel, and you’re comment is actually fairly spot on. The show just seems to have no direction at all, as if they’d all just turned up a few minutes before the show and adlibbed the whole hour. Don’t get me wrong, it can still be enjoyable at times, but the lack of management or preparation is really starting to show. Even Ferguson referred to himself as ‘you’re watching a man who couldn’t give a rats-ass anymore’. Which I’m sure was said for humour, but I think there’s an element of truth in it too.
Like I said, it can still be a enjoyable watch but maybe the time has come for it to come to an end if this is how its going to continue. But in its time it’s been truly original and ground breaking.


I think the Corden we see on The Late Late Show will be noticeably different to the Corden we’re used to.

This is just my prediction, but I think CBS are going to want him to be their ‘Jimmy Fallon’. By that I mean I think they will want him to be an ‘all round entertainer’ doing comedy bits, singing dance, doing dance routines, playing games with celebrities etc. I think they want some of what NBC has got, and will be trying to get Fallon’s audience to switch over from NBC to CBS at 12:30am.
Meanwhile I think Stephen Colbert won’t complete directly with Fallon, but instead target a slightly older, more policitcal, more savvy audience at 11:30pm.

He does that to a point on ALOTO so I don't think it will be a big step for him.

CBS should have no problem stealing the NBC audience after Fallon. Late Night with Set Myers is dire.

I think the greatest shame is that this couldn't be a direct swap. I know Craig is rooted to America with his family, citizenship and also that tattoo but it just seems that for someone that feels boxed in by the resztrctive nature of American talk show, the obvious move would be back to the beeb. I think having him as a successor to Norton whenever he moves on would be a great way of getting the Friday night show less chummy and all about plugs to something resembling early Jonathan Ross. Cos the way Friday Night is going now I fear Matt Baker could be the new presenter

Some of the ‘guest hosts’ that will be hosting between Ferguson’s departure and Corden’s arrival have been announced:
http://insidetv.ew.com/2014/11/26/la...nd-john-mayer/

There was initial criticism that its another bunch of white males (with one exception). But this article does have an update to say some women were approached and declined, and that there are more names still to be announced.

I still think the whole ‘guest host’ thing is a bit weird as I’m not sure what purpose it has other than to allow CBS to trial potential replacements for if Corden doesn’t work out. As far as I can see there’s no reason Corden couldn’t have started in January, other than maybe the new show simply not being ready yet.

I think Corden has other commitments such as promoting Into the Woods for awards season and some other filming which is probably why he couldn't start in January. The Talk late night experiment is the odd one but CBS needs to fill the gap between Letterman's last show and Colbert's first as repeats will be handing the audience so if it works at 12.37am, they may consider it as filler for 3 months.

It's funny that both Drew Carey and Wayne Brady are guest hosting considering they both do shows for CBS. I wonder if the announcements of more guest hosts mean that some of the guest stint won't be for the full week, Thomas Lennon and Bill Gardell likely wouldn't do a full week because they are filming The Odd Couple and Mike and Molly on one of the days. I'd to see like Aisha Tyler return to do a stint on the show or Chelsea Handler.