James Corden and his writers had six weeks off due to the coronavirus shutdown, but they couldn’t come up with one damn original bit for “The Late Late Show’s” return to television.
(Or at least, that’s the joke of the scene.)
First up on Tuesday, Corden blatantly jacks an old David Letterman bit: “The Top 10 List.” Corden only got two countdown-numbers deep before shutting that nonsense down.
Next, it was the pure theft of “Jimmy Kimmel Live” segment, “Mean Tweets.” With Jimmy Kimmel taking the summer off, Corden’s CBS late-night series might have been able to get away with this intellectual-property heist. Still, after reading one unkind Twitter message aloud, Corden pivoted to the next sketch.
Last night’s “Late Late Show” thievery did not stop there.
Jimmy Fallon’s “Thank You Notes” also got stolen (and, we suppose, plugged). As a matter of fact, the only current broadcast-TV late-night hosts who were not a victim turned out to be Corden’s own CBS lead-in Stephen Colbert, who took over the Letterman slot, and NBC “Late Show” host Seth Meyers. (We’d include Lilly Singh there but the awareness level would be too low for any punchlines to actually land.)
After all of that, Nate the writer probably isn’t long for “The Late Late Show.” But hey, he might be perfectly suited to write for literally any of the other guys.
At the end of the scene, which is called the “button” in sketch-comedy terms, a second “Late Late” writer helps Nate rip off an “Ellen” routine. That reference sure appeared to be a joking nod to recent reports that Corden would be the frontrunner to host a potential replacement of Ellen DeGeneres’ daytime talk show, should “Ellen” end following a string of unflattering behind-the-scenes revelations about the culture there.
Watch the video above.
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