The Night James Corden Staged A Nationwide Late Night Television Takeover
When James Corden first came on to host the Late Late Show on CBS last year, he initially shocked the audience with a new format, prepping the evening time slot for heavy-hitter Stephen Colbert who was coming to take David Letterman’s place.
Corden had already made some improvements to what former show host Craig Ferguson had left behind, but since then, he has taken the late night format by storm with weekly viral content to generate enough excitement for viewers to take notice, resulting in a major boost to the ratings.
The Late Late Show host James Corden happened to be a guest this Wednesday night on a show for the rival NBC network, opposite Seth Meyers from Late Night, where he came out wearing a hat and a pull over with his own show’s logo.
As soon as James Corden sat down, he acted coy pretending that he didn’t know he was already plugging his own show.
It was around this time that they both come up with an interesting idea.
Seth started reminding James that his show was airing at the same time as Late Night and viewers would be able to see him if they simply switched over to the other channel.
Both hosts then suggested that viewers switch over to CBS for 10 seconds and then switch back where they would be doing something completely different.
Viewers were then treated to seeing both hosts count to three and then run from their seats, before they could switch over to James Corden’s show where he was talking about a mom Massage website on CBS, only to switch back to NBC and see Corden also hosting Late Night from behind the desk with Seth Meyers as his guest, where it looked as if James Corden had taken over both channels at the same time.
James Corden Explains His ‘Late Late Show’ Success
For NBC, Corden was cuing up a fictional clip of whatever movie or show Seth Meyers as a guest was supposed to be in, before they suggested viewers switch back for another 10 seconds and return.
On CBS, the Late Late Show host was talking about buying up domain names, a continuation of the story he was telling earlier and switching back; they were back to their regular seats to continue the interview as normal.
James Corden has made at least two appearances on other late night programs thus far, starting with Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show on Tuesday night, in promotion for his hosting appearance on the Tony Awards on June 12.
During the interview, however, James Corden continued to bring on the laughs when he ended up taking off his pullover to reveal a Late Late Show T-shirt, before going into a story about hitting the coinstar wearing a hat that he thought would keep him from being noticed in public.
Seth Meyers then brought out images of him in the street which got huge laughs over the hat, which only seemed to make him more obvious.
He then handed him a gift bag which contained some kind of cloth and when Seth Meyers finally opened it up, it was a Late Late Show shirt for him to wear.
At another time, James Corden’s promotion would have been treated differently, but since the new hosts have taken their seats for their shows, they’ve said that the late night wars are over, as they can all offer more to viewers collectively.
[Image by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP]
