Alanis Morrisette is looked good these days. To be honest though I was surprised to find she's only 41. I thought she was late 40s.

Notice they're now dropping the second segment where the guests play an obligatory silly game or do a silly sketch a la Jimmy Fallon. This allows for more discussion which is no bad thing as past criticism has been that the interview time is too short for the guests to really gel as they do on Graham Norton.

Some of the games were sometimes the best bit of the show in my opinion. Admittedly they are usually a rip-off from Jimmy Fallon. For me most of the sketches didn’t work though.
But I agree that the interview bit is too short, so I don’t know the answer – you can only fit so much into 40 minutes.

I think maybe my favourite bits of the show are when Corden is out of the studio, like his ‘Take a Break’ segments. The one he did last week at the Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas was very good. Again, admittedly these are just an update on what David Letterman used to do in the 80s and 90s, and what Conan O’Brien still does today. I also quite like when Corden interacts with the audience.

I haven't noticed any segment being dropped. They just rotate them.
Sometimes they have sketches (last week the intro was replaced by a musical number).
And they have various different games/segements like Bring It Back, Non of the Above, Contact Me On, Emoji News etc.

This week they have Carpool Karaoke back.

Very entertaining show with Gordon-Levitt and Cranston the other night.


Only 100 shows in though and they're already having repeat guests.

Christoph Waltz definitely one of the best repeat guests

Also noticed that they're having guests plug the same movie on consequtive nights.
e.g. Mackie and then Gordon-Levitt

and on The Late Show Fonda then Caine plugging Youth.


Is this common in the US?

It’s not that unusual to have the same guests re-appear within a 8 month period to be fair, it happens on The Tonight Show and that’s the most successful of all the late night talk shows at the moment.


Again it’s quite common on the late night talk shows in the US. When you’ve got 5 late night talk shows on the major networks all producing 4 or 5 shows a week you’re going to get a lot of repetition whether it be the guests themselves of whatever they’re plugging. And that’s before you start to include the cable late night talk shows in that equation too.

I think NBC has the biggest problem now that both their 11:30 and 12:30 shows are coming from New York. You’ll quite often see the same guest appear on The Tonight Show and then Late Night just a few days later. Or have different guests on each show, but plugging the same thing on the same night. At least CBS have their 11:30 in New York and their 12:30 in LA, that helps reduce the repetition somewhat.

I caught up on last week’s shows last night, the One Direction one was good, Corden is always more relaxed when he’s with friends.
I wonder whether the tattoo roulette was completely genuine – most of One Direction are covered in tattoos anyway so probably wouldn’t have been bothered about having to get a ‘Late Late’ tattoo, but I wonder if Niall (I think!) or Corden would have actually gone through with it as neither of them have any. It seemed fairly convenient that Harry won and had to get it done.

On another note, I’ve seen no news on Sky1 broadcasting the show in a weekly ‘highlights’ format. September or January would have been a logical time to pick it up, but it doesn’t look like it’s happening. I’m starting to think those rumours earlier this year aren’t going to come to fruition.

I thought it was a setup from the start.

Billy Crystal was good value. 1D came across better than on Ross. Probably because Ross was asking more difficult questions. It does seem to me though that the Irish one is the only one with any personality. Strange that it's always that Harry bloke getting all the headlines.

Justin Bieber also better than you might expect in one of the show's attempts to be unexpected with Corden turning up in his bathrobe. However the return of Chris Hardwick (a great guest on craig ferguson) in another great outfit with a nerdy song was brilliant.

Ratings-wise Colbert just about ties with Seth Meyers while Corden is getting beaten by Carson Daly. Perhaps he was better off with repeats of The Mentalist as a lead-in!

I know many think of Beiber as a total knob but over the past few weeks he's been on Corden twice, Chatty Man and TFI Friday and has come across quite well.

I don't follow his career so it might have just been a good patch for him.

I look at this and think it can all be traced back to one fact - The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon is dominating late night. It performs so well that Seth Meyers gets a ratings bump just for the fact it follows it. It also performs so well that Stephen Colbert (it's direct competition) on CBS just can't compete, and that means James Corden takes a hit as a result.
What CBS/Corden need to do is get Fallon's viewers to switch over to Corden afterwards as they are chasing the exact same audience with very similar shows, but instead they remain on NBC and watch Meyers. How you get viewers to switch from NBC to CBS at 12:35 I don't know!


I've come to the conclusion Beiber is temperamental - nice one day, a diva the next.

Speaking of TFI Friday, James Corden is a guest on this Friday's Christmas Special, his first UK talk show appearance since starting The Late Late Show. I'm therefore guessing that this is the last week of Late Late Show this year and that Corden will be home for Christmas. It airs at 7:30pm this Friday on Channel 4.

He gave Chris a video message on the first show so possibly some previous connection there.

I wonder if/when ALOTO will be recorded

Also what kind of an audience stays up that late? At a guess I'd think mostly male and over 18 which means the vloggier parts of his show might put them off. As well as the aformentioned Bieber or One Direction. Who Craig would be counted on to gently mock rather than effuse as Corden does. Craig's slightly jaded cynicism is much missed.

Yes, it was actually the 2nd or 3rd show of TFI Friday that James Corden did a video message, but it clearly shows he likes TFI. In fact Corden is quite open about having ‘stolen’ a lot of bits of TFI for his US show (as referenced in the video message) – the bar in the studio, the guests walking in through the audience etc.

As for A League of Their Own, the new series starts on Sky 1 in January – which was actually recorded in a production gap of The Late Late Show in the summer. I think its contracted for at least one more series, which I guess will be recorded early next year, or maybe in the summer production break of The Late Late Show again.

I really enjoy the Late Late Show and there's probably nothing original in chat shows anymore but I think most things about it have been 'heavily inspired' by other current chat shows. I can spot things from many UK shows which is probably because Corden and the producer are Brits, will be aware of those UK shows and that the US audience and guests may not be.


As you say, the guests walking out through the audience, the bar, all guests on the sofa, him sitting next to them and not behind a desk, along with the US show stalwarts of the house band, the curtain and the monologue.

This video is a little bit intriguing as it suggests that Corden had already been identified by Nina Tassler as Craig Ferguson's successor two years prior. Certainly suggests CBS were well aware that Craig would be leaving LLS (Craig also confirmed this) although we may never know whether Craig had hopes of taking over the late show from Letterman.

Kimmel has really upped his game with exclusive trailers and great guests, I think Colbert is still finding his footing but I don't think CBS will be thinking about replacing him since he's managed to improve The Late Show's younger audience and also it's likely more profitable since they own the show and Colbert is a lot cheaper than Letterman was.

I’m not going to say the execs at CBS hadn’t maybe thought about James Corden as a potential replacement, but I’d say they certainly hadn’t decided upon it 2 years in advance. It’s public knowledge they spoke with John Oliver, before anyone had ever mentioned James Corden.

Craig Ferguson had originally stated his intention to leave The Late Late Show a few years ago, but CBS offered him more money and extras (such as a new, bigger studio) so he stayed for a few more years. I think this was all part of CBS’s plan to revamp the Late Show and The Late Late Show at the same time (and they knew Letterman only had a few more years as Late Show host in him at that time).
This was also when Craig Ferguson had it written into his contract that he would receive (a rumoured) $10 million payment if he wasn’t offered the Late Show when Letterman retired. I suspect CBS agreed to this knowing they were never going to offer him the job (and just factored that sum into their overall budget), and I suspect Craig Ferguson probably knew this too but took the opportunity to get a nice exit pay cheque.

I loved Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show, but it was so niche. Would it have worked at 11:30pm – no, not in my opinion. And I think CBS and Craig Ferguson knew this all along.

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has an older audience than its direct rival, The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, but as you say it’s still younger than Letterman’s audience so I suspect CBS are content for now. CBS as a network skews older anyway. The Late Show with Stephen Colbert does have a higher social class demo than Fallon though, so maybe CBS can charge more for ad space based on that?
You’re right about ownership too, as CBS now own the programme it automatically becomes more profitable as a result of that too.
Stephen Colbert might not be dominating late night, but I think CBS are happy with him for now.

As for Jimmy Kimmel, it’s clear he and ABC see this as their opportunity to improve their position in late night. And I do think they’ve inherited some of Letterman’s audience (Kimmel’s whole show is inspired by Letterman so it’s not surprising), but I don’t think it’ll ever challenge Fallon.

In my opinion Jimmy Fallon was extremely lucky to get The Tonight Show. He essentially only got it because of the whole Leno/Conan mess at NBC left them with no other option. But I give him a lot of credit too, because he’s absolutely dominating and revitalising late night.

Agree with most of this except Bill Carter's book has it as 2008 (when Craig got the deal) around the time he'd overtaken Conan in the ratings. Speaking of Bill Carter a good article by him about the state of late night.

I'm sure Ferguson 're-upped' his contract more recently than 2008... I thought it was around 2012 or something that he was planning on leaving but CBS got him to sign for 2 more years...

Thanks for the article, looks good, I'll give it a read. I really like Bill Carter, both his books on late night television were brilliant.

I was talking specifically about the deal that he gets to succeed Letterman. Clearly if Craig wanted to leave already in 2012 that would prove he had no interest in succeeding Letterman. In any case with Colbert currently below Seth Meyers with a ratings low of 0.4, I can imagine Craig thinking himself glad to be out of all that.

On a positive note for James Corden his retention isn't bad at 0.3 only one decimal point behind Colbert. The aformentioned article by Bill Carter praised his conscious effort to brand himself through signature bits that mean even with modest ratings he has a following on youtube. And Corden is excused for his poor ratings because of his bad lead-in.

Ah, Ok, I agree with you in regards to when Craig Fergusons ‘Late Show’ clause was added to his contract.
I also agree that Ferguson is probably quite happy to be out of the game. He always said his career isn’t as a late night host, so I’d guess he’s quite happy having made his money (and a name for himself) and moving on to other projects. I suspect his ‘Celebrity Name Game’ paycheque is rather considerable considering it’s in syndication. And that then allows him to do more things he’s really interested in, like stand up and his upcoming History show.

I think James Corden is doing very well. As we’ve said his biggest challenge is his poor lead in from Colbert. He’d be getting a lot higher ratings if his lead in was Fallon (which, coincidently in Canada it is!). But these days it’s all about online presence too, and Corden has been very successful in that area - more than his lead in Colbert and direct competition Meyers.


Just a reminder – James Corden is live on TFI Friday tonight at 7:30pm on Channel 4. I’m sure they’ll talk about The Late Late Show.