James Corden got real with Jimmy Fallon Monday night when asked what life has been life on “the other side” of his late night show.
“It’s overwhelming. It’s an up-at-dawn, pride-swallowing siege,” the former host of “The Late Late Show” told Fallon.
Corden originally took over the CBS show in 2014 from Craig Ferguson and remained as the series’ host until April of 2023. The celebrity ultimately stepped down from the role so that he could spend more time with his children. He and his family have since moved from Los Angeles back to the U.K.
“I have really not been doing anything,” Corden told Fallon. “We’ve really just been trying to make it as, to make the landing as easy as we could for the kids.”
When asked about what he missed most about his time hosting “The Late Late Show,” Corden listed three draws: being part of a “gang,” which is how he referred to his former late night team, putting on a show “every day” and the potential for excuses.
“The thing I miss more than anything, which I didn’t realize at the time and only realize now, is you’ve got a ready-made, built-in excuse to get out of anything you don’t want to do,” Corden elaborated. “You just say to people, ‘I can’t, I’ve got a show’ … Everyone believes you.”
Without that excuse, Corden has ended up in places that were “inconceivable” to him before. The comedian then outlined the “darkest moment” of his life after his CBS show: taking his kids to a water park.
After complaining about the horrors of people peeing in water parks and the humiliation of wearing sun-protecting shirts, Corden recalled he was in the park holding his daughter’s half-eaten hotdog. A man walking past asked Corden if he was the guy who used to sing songs with celebrities in the car, referring to Corden’s viral segment “Carpool Karaoke.”
“It actually made me go to quite a dark place,” Corden half-joked as Fallon laughed.
