From what i've read ALOTO is one of Corden's favourite projects so I think if they continue with it they'll wait for him to be free to host it.

Also he has upped sticks and moved his family over to the US so it's not like he's just there for a jolly. He's taking it seriously.

Anyway, Frost was doing transatlantic flights back in the 60s to record US and UK shows in the same week (I believe he took Friday off to recover) so if Corden did need to commute for whatever reason then surely it's a hell of a lot better these days that it was back then.

He needs to take it seriously. It's a year round job.

I wouldn’t say Celebrity Name Game is a big success... it’s doing alright. No news on him doing any more episodes though. I like the format of the show itself, my problem with it is that it doesn’t let Craig Ferguson be Craig Ferguson. The format is too fast paced and tightly scripted for him to display any of his personality.
It’s a shame that it sounds like his syndicated 7pm talk show deal has collapsed. That’s what I’d like to see him do, another talk show, or a radio show or podcast if he really wants to do something a bit different.

You’re correct that ‘pre-interviews’ took place between guests and researchers which were used to little of no effect during the actual interview itself, but the cards which Craig Ferguson ripped up at the start of each interview were blank, no one actually wrote the questions on there as they knew they were merely a prop.

Although my experience with him was brief he seemed a nice guy, and was interested to meet some fellow British people in Hollywood.


Absolutely, if James Corden wants to continue with ALOTO and Sky are happy to work around his schedule, it’s achievable.
As you’ve said, David Frost did it in the 60’s, and more recently the likes of Simon Cowell, Sharon Osbourne, Mel B, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman have all been on US and UK shows within the same week. However James Coden will be recoding shows in LA at least 4 days a week, and what with all the ‘behind the scenes’ stuff those are going to be very long days. And any days or weeks off recording, at least in the near future, will probably still be spent working on the show, either doing more ‘behind the scenes’ or promotional work. I’d be surprised if he did a new series of ALOTO this year, maybe at the very end of it at the earliest. He’s simply going to be too busy, or should be too busy if he’s taking the new talk show serious and spending the right amount of time on it to make it a success.

I think they taped some ALOTO in January time,I seem to remember an Audience Store e-mail going out saying they where doing a load in a short space of time around that time

The ALOTO episodes for the new series were recorded in November/December time. (We went to one of the recordings)

Ah, I see, thanks for the info.
I guess that keeps everyone happy for a while then. Sky get a new series of ALOTO for broadcast this year and James Corden doesn’t have to take time off from his The Late Late Show work until maybe as late as early next year if he wants to continue with ALOTO.
And by then who know what shape James Corden’s career could be in.

So you got to meet him then? What was it like?

Noticed this in the showbiz forum so thought i'd post the link here as this thread seems entirely more rational

It's the DM, to be fair ..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz...s-impress.html

It does seem like they're trying to spin it in to something that's going to tank badly, but it just seems like it's nothing more than continued rehearsals and trying to iron out a lot of things before they air.

It does seem that the rumour about him borrowing the Graham Norton format of having all the guests come out and sit on the sofa at the start is true though.

It was very brief, more of an exchange than a meeting (I was in the audience and he was talking to us and took interest because we were from Britain). But as much as you can tell from a brief exchange, he seemed nice and friendly.


Thanks for the link, really interesting to see the set. The geek in me noticed it'll be the only talk show to have the guests on the right of the screen. Also looks like quite an intimate audience (at the front at least), and with a bar and a barman in the corner there's certainly inspiritation from TFI Friday. Plus having all the guests out at once, that'll be an interesting twist.
Anyone saying how badly the test rehersals are going should look at the reviews of Late Night with Jimmy Fallon during its first weeks on air, they really weren't good. Now, 6 years later, he's hosting the biggest celebrity talk show in the world to the best ratings its had in over 10 years.

I notice with the guest hosts too they all seem a bit wooden. I don't know how they are instructed over there and how different Ferguson was but Ferguson seemed to just say what was ever in his head and it was never about telling jokes, more like just making regular every day stuff seem funny because it needs to go on all week, it's not just a night here or there, whether you like it or not people are gonna choose to want you in their living rooms 5 nights a week so you better share your life with them in some way.

You'll have no choice but to bear all to them and people obviously took to him but I think Corden should try and do more of the same and don't worry about jokes with punchlines and try and make the conversations interesting and funny and make the monologues more about your own observations. Craig would often do his monologues about one subject only, usually in taped episodes and they never had a flow it could just be some weird thing about a certain country or gadget or whatever the date was, something was invented that day or whatever and just told funny stories.

Peter Lassally (Craig's exec producer) oversaw the guest host episodes, even appearing in the last cold open Each guest host had their style and given Tom Lennon spent most of his stint walking around dressed as the CBS eye i think they had carte blanche.

James Corden has already admitted he doesn't do stand up and wants to bring the guests in earlier Graham Norton Style so I don't expect him to bring much of himself to the table.

I think the interview style that James Corden chooses to adopt will play a big role. Just because he’s going to bring the guests out earlier or all at the same time doesn’t mean anything in itself, I’d say a bigger factor is if he sticks to tightly scripted questioning (a bit like Jimmy Fallon) or adopts a more casual conversation approach (a bit like Craig Ferguson).

Having said that, there’s no doubt that Jimmy Fallon is the most successful talk show host right now. Although it is widely regarded that his interviews are the weakest part of the programme.

With Corden being more used to Ross, Norton and Carr i'd be watching out for any traits of theirs in his interview style.

I know Ross kind of styled his own style partly on Letterman but I don't think Corden would have been researching the US talkshow hosts and their individual styles on how he should act.

Also saw an interview last night and he said the producer is a Brit who is his mate and done music vids and other stuff so it looks as though it's going to be a big change behind the scenes as well.

Not saying that the network peeps haven't had words and tried to direct them to a certain style though.

Hopefully he does well. We will all see soon enough.

That is true. He is an awful interviewer. How he has the most successful talk show I have no idea.

Ben Winston is the British Executive Producer that James Corden is working with. He’s done a lot of high profile television work in the UK too, aside from music videos, I don’t think he’s ever done a talk show though. Most recently he worked for Simon Cowell, as the Executive Producer on The X Factor (UK).
You’re right about there being substantial changes behind the scenes at The Late Late Show too. Almost all of Craig Ferguson’s production team left with him (well, most stayed around during the guest hosts), and James Corden is starting from scratch – new producers, new writers, etc. This is commonly done when one host departs and another starts. And I suspect the fact that Ferguson’s show was produced by World Wide Pants (Letterman’s company) and Corden’s show isn’t is probably the main reason for the big change behind the scenes. It’s still coming from the same studios in LA though, although I’m not sure if it’s the exact same studio.

There are some new promos on YouTube which are quite good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nRBU9RC10
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzQHqO6JVrM


I wouldn’t say Jimmy Fallon is an awful interviewer, I can think of worse, but it’s certainly not his strongest skill – which is an weird thing to say when he’s the host of arguably the world’s biggest TALK show.
It’s all the other things he, and his team (notably headed by Lorne Micheals), do that make The Tonight Show so successful. He’s a very good all round performer, and the idea of getting celebrities to take part in comedy sketches, dance numbers, comedy songs, or simply playing a classic party game has proved extremely popular with viewers, with clips going viral and receiving tens of millions of views online. You could argue that none of these things are very creatively original, but you could also say that none of the other hosts had thought of doing it. I still find it hard to believe how success he’s been on The Tonight Show in only his first year.

I've read plenty of articles about Fallon and most say he sucks at interviewing. Most notably, the washingtonpost tv crtic.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...d88_story.html

Fallon, is brilliant at what he does. I do often forget he's only been in the role for a short time.

As for the interviews, it's noticeable how 'not very far he gets' with his guests. But there is an underlying charm and rapport with his guests, that masks over the ineptness.

I hope he does really well.

I met james once when he was filming fat friends in leeds, he was peering though the window of flannels and after filming I asked if I could get an autograph and he agreed. He chatted to me for a few minutes and then left. Proper nice guy

Don't get me wrong, the variety of the second segment puts Craig's tweets and emails section to shame and his monologue feels fresher than Leno's but something about his perky demeanour and inability to concentrate on one thing (as brilliantly parodied by jrt) reminds me of Matt Baker. It's this careful now, let's not be contreversial, good clean fun aspect, the polar opposite to Craig's show which definitely wasn't for squares.

You make it sound like a business transaction lol.

Tom Hanks and Mila Kunis on his first show with Will Ferrell, Kevin Hart, Kerry Washington and David Beckham all lined up to appear.

Hanks is chat-show gold whenever he appears. Wise choice.

I'm not a massive fan of Corden but I actually want him to be a success. The more I'm hearing about the way he's doing the show the more I think he could make it work.

The problem is everything is so hyped these days. Craig had no fanfair whatsoever when he joined in 2005 and he had a long year or so settling into the show and developing it the way he wanted.

Corden won't be able to do that. He's going to be judged and commented upon through social media and every small mistake he makes will be magnified tenfold straight from the beginning.

I just hope CBS give him a fair shot at it.

The other side of the coin is that CBS seem to want to promote this one. Craig's show was barely promoted at all.