James Corden is stepping down from The Late Late Show next year
Corden will end his run after nearly nine years in the summer of 2023
Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road. Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go… Sorry, we’re just feeling wistful over the ceaseless passage of time and how the good things can never truly last—because their impermanence is what makes them good. (Whoops, we were being sarcastic and now we actually feel sad.)
Anyway, James Corden is leaving CBS’s The Late Late Show in 2023, and while that itself is not terrible news (late night shake-ups are always fascinating, regardless of who or what is getting shaken up), we must admit that we’ll miss the easy target of poking fun at Corden’s brand of endlessly crowd-pleasing, viral-friendly comedy… and his Cinderella mouse crotch. And his “regular people jobs are funny” thing. And his “Asian delicacies are gross” thing. Look, we’ve poked a lot of fun at a lot of James Corden things over the years and we’ll miss the guy. He was so fun on Doctor Who! Everybody has to give him that.
This news comes from Deadline, which notes that Corden will have hosted The Late Late Show for eight and a half years once he finishes his run next summer, and he said in a statement that he had initially planned to only do it for five years until he actually reached that mark and didn’t want to stop. But, he says he’s been “thinking about it for a long time” and was wondering “whether there might be one more adventure.” He hinted to Deadline that he’d “like to try and write,” even though he’s scared, but “the fact that it’s terrifying is the reason to do it.”
See, he seems like a relatively genuine guy who just loves putting on a show, which can be a little grating for us snotty loners, but his show clearly connected with a lot of people based on the success of “Carpool Karaoke” and “Crosswalk Musical.” Also, his Late Late Show gave band leader Reggie Watts an absurd amount of time in front of a much more mainstream audience than his weirdo musical comedy would normally get, and that’s pretty cool.
So we take it all back, James Corden. We like you now and we think you should stick around. Oh, what’s that? It’s too late? Okay, never mind. We’ll see you on Sunday at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.