James Corden Late Late Show Finale Recap & Review [VIDEO]

Tom Cruise didn’t present up for the Academy Awards, however he did present up for the final episode of The Late Late Show With James Corden — or somewhat, The Last Last Late Late Show With James Corden Carpool Karaoke Special.

Confused? Allow us to elucidate…

CBS gave Corden a two-hour sendoff cut up between primetime and late-night. The affair kicked off at 10 pm and featured a pair of pre-taped skits: First up, Cruise and Corden shocked an unsuspecting viewers on the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, showing as Timon and Pumba in Disney’s The Lion King musical. They even carried out “Hakuna Matata” in its entirety!

After a really scripted falling out, the star-crossed showbiz associates sang “Can You Feel the Love Tonight,” which managed to reawaken each our Rock of Ages *and* Cats PTSD.

That was adopted by one final Carpool Karaoke with encore visitor Adele.  The setlist included “Rolling in the Deep,” “Love Is a Game,” “I Drink Wine,” “Hometown Glory” and Barbra Streisand’s “Don’t Rain On My Parade.”



Come 12:37 am, The Late Late Show Proper kicked off with a pre-taped sketch starring a cavalcade of late-night hosts. The phase started with Corden waking as much as discover Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel in his bed room, there to make sure he gained’t reveal any internet hosting secrets and techniques as soon as he’s formally out of the sport.

That trio was later joined by Jimmy Fallon and Stephen Colbert, the latter of whom commanded Corden to develop a beard in his retirement. More particularly, “a huge beard, one that says ‘God spoke to me from a bush.’” Right on cue, the digicam panned over to David Letterman and his biblical facial hair seated within the nook.

Fun reality: The skit marked Letterman’s first look on a CBS late-night present since he left The Late Show in 2015. He has since appeared 3 times on each NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live, however has by no means sat down with Craig Ferguson or Late Show successor Colbert.

Corden then welcomed the night time’s beforehand introduced friends — Harry Styles, who one way or the other made mustard corduroy look good, and Will Ferrell, who used his time on the sofa to ask essential questions like “What are the Grammys?”

Next got here a sequence of “thank you”s to everybody who has helped maintain Corden’s Late Late Show going for eight years: “I sit here now today with nothing but love, gratitude and pride. This show is everything I ever wanted it to be. I’m just one part of a big team who make this show, this incredible family here.”

And what would a farewell from Corden be with out one final musical quantity? The host ended his closing night time on TV seated on the piano, struggling to take care of his composure whereas singing an authentic music about every little thing he’ll miss. One line appeared to get him notably labored up: “As the end of the show fast approaches, and I gaze at the studio floor, we filled it with thousands of moments, and now there won’t be any more.”

In reality, right here’s just a little behind-the-scenes scoop: Corden truly needed to pause this efficiency as his feelings bought the higher of him. “It’s difficult to do when you can hear physical weeping,” he joked. (Except, , it wasn’t a joke.)

As beforehand reported, Corden’s sendoff marks the tip of the Late Late Show franchise, which started in 1995 with authentic host Tom Snyder and continued with Craig Kilborn (1999-2004), Ferguson (2005-2014) and Corden (2015-2023).  The post-Colbert time slot will quickly be stuffed by a reboot of former Comedy Central gameshow @Midnight (host TBA).

What did you consider James Corden’s Late Late Show sendoff? Grade it through the next ballot, then go away a assessment in Comments.