Looking back over the past year, you might think James Corden has been around forever. But the reality is he just finished hosting his first year of The Late Late Show.
That's right. Only one year ago Carpool Karaoke wasn't a thing, neither was the segment, inappropriate musicals! Late-night TV included Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel and more, with the British host just getting his start—but it was anything but easy. Corden penned his own article in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly and reveals how hard it was to get The Late Late Show off the ground.
"One thing we knew from the start is that we were never going to let our 12:37 a.m. time slot influence how we approached the show. I said: 'If it's good, people will find it and watch it at their breakfast table or their desk at lunch.' Because I never grew up here, I never think of when it's on," he explains. "I just think, 'We're going to make the best and biggest show we can. We want to reach the widest audience we can—and the widest audience we can reach is on the Internet.'"
He and his staff could say whatever they wanted, but they wouldn't have a show if they didn't have guests. "Actually executing all of this, it turns out, is easier said than done," he continues. "Initially we couldn't get any guests to come on the show, which I completely understood."
So how did he manage to go from total rejection to instant success? Perseverance.
"There's no room for ego in those moments, so I took about 10 meetings, driving all around L.A. to sit with publicists to try to convince them that this was a show that wanted its guests to shine, that it would be a safe environment, that sharing the couch with other stars wasn't a bad thing," he explains, "that Betty White could be on the same couch with Amar'e Stoudemire. We went to this big publicist with big clients, and I said, 'I promise it's going to be great.'"
But even with promises and hope under his belt, Corden was still a no name in Hollywood. He was so anonymous, in fact, that he couldn't even get into his own office. "I didn't have my pass, and security wouldn't let me in the building. I was like, 'I'm the host of a show.' They were like, 'What show is that?' I was like, 'The Late Late Show With James Corden.' They were like...'Is there anyone you can ring in the office that can come down and verify that you're here?'" he recalls, thinking back to his first days at CBS.
"That's what we were up against."
Little did security—and everyone else—know that he would soon become a household name with the help of Tom Hanks and Mariah Carey. He was able to convince the Bridge of Spies star to reenact his movies in under six minutes, which became a viral sensation. That first week Corden also thought of the idea that would become Carpool Karaoke, but no one would agree to do it...until Carey came along.
"Persuading anyone to actually do it was a nightmare, though. No one could understand it," he writes. "But my producer Rob was adamant that we had to keep asking, and finally Mariah Carey said yes. She had been recording in the studio late into the previous night and got in the car and said, 'I'm protecting my voice. We're just going to have a talk, right?' I remember going, 'Well, kind of. It's called Carpool Karaoke. It's really going to be us singing.'"
And we all know how that story ends! Eventually Justin Bieber, Stevie Wonder, Chris Martin, Adele, Jennifer Hudson and more would ride in the carpool lane with the host. "A year into the show, we have had over a billion views online," he says. "That's something we could never have imagined."
Corden was incredibly nervous to move his entire family across the pond, especially not knowing anyone in Los Angeles. He had heard about the late-night wars and wondered if he'd be bullied as the new guy in town.
"I must say it's been such a relief to join the ranks of such a lovely and welcoming group of hosts. When it leaked that I would be taking over this show, the first email I got was from Seth Meyers...Then I had a night out in New York with Jimmy Fallon," he says. Colbert and Kimmel also reached out to him with "lovely" emails and gifts.
"I think about how many doubts I had at taking the job in the first place," Corden admits, referring to the initial rejection he gave CBS. "But now I feel so lucky to have a job that gives me so many memories."
And with that, Corden wraps his first and highly successful year at the helm.