By Judy Shields
Hollywood, California (The Hollywood Times) 04/2/2023
On Sunday, April 2, 2022, PaleyFest celebrated with the cast and creatives from The Late Late Show with James Corden at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood. The evening included: James Corden, Host & Executive Producer, Ben Winston, Executive Producer and Rob Crabbe, Executive Producer. Bryan Cranston moderated the panel.
The Late Late Show band was playing for the audience before Bryan came out to the stage. The band consist of Guilermo E. Brown, Drummer, Steve Scalfati, keyboardist, Tim Young, guitarist, Reggie Watts, bandleader, Hagar Ben-Ari, bassist. They were amazing to hear live!
It was so awesome to be there as a guest of a long-time Paley Center member, who gave me a front row seat. Now I am spoiled for sure! I owe her big time…To be so close to see James Corden and Bryan Cranston as well as Ben Winston and Rob Crabbe, who have given us so much late night entertainment full of laughter, carpool Karaoke, crazy stunts, Crosswalk the Musical and amazing guest who seem to feel so comfortable sitting there with James. I will surely miss his show, but thank goodness for YouTube, so I can always enjoy him FOREVER!
It was an emotional night for James Corden, as he told Bryan Cranston that he was going to try and hold back his emotions. James told Bryan “that it fells strange and it’s an unnatural feeling to walk away from something that you love so much, its not right, because you are having such a great time, you get to go to work with my best friends. Essentially our job is to be creative every day and try and think of the next big idea. So absolutely certain that we did everything that we wanted to do and I think it is really important how things end and so out in the manner that we came in. We have 12 shows to go and there is a strong chance that they are our biggest 12 shows we ever do and that will be absolutely thrilling!”
Huge applause from the audience.
It was really cool to hear Ben Winston to tell us all about a typical day for the creative team. He said that “Rob and I would get in touch before going into the office around 8 to make everything is okay. Around 9 they will check in with the monolog team and 10 would be production meeting, now on Zoom, led by Rob, that talks about what is going on the show that night. Talk with James by 11 and talk about things not related to work (laughter). Next a creative meeting with all the writers and the show script creatively, and talk about future guest.” Ben told us Bryan would be a guest to come. “Noon would be going back to the edit room to see what they have so far and a segment meeting to brief James on the interview part of the show. Zoom meetings too. Then at 3 we will start rehearsing things on the stage and at 5 we tape, 6 we are finished, 7 we are looking at edits and at 9 it goes on the line and it has to be ready by 9:20 for LA and we do it all again the next day!” WOW, that was an amazing speech in itself.
James said that they are not on this week, but when they get back they will have four shows, plus they are shooting three carpools, as well as a crosswalk musical and four hours of show. He also said that some days it feels like his feet don’t touch the ground and told Bryan he knew about that because he hosted once.
James went on to say that Bryan has always been a enormous support of his show and that they did strange and stupid things together. James told the story of why Bryan had to host the show. When his youngest daughter was born it was sort of scary and they had to stay at the hospital and he called Bryan and told him he had to stay at the hospital and would he host the show and so incredible and he watched it from the hospital and said he had to get back on tomorrow, great laughter after he said that and he said “No joking, I’m being deadly series.”
Bryan Cranston asked James if there had been ideas he had but didn’t get done and James told one were he and Jennifer Lopez were going to live in a glass box for a day over Sunset Blvd so that everyone could see them for the whole day, but unfortunately Jennifer Lopez couldn’t clear a full day in her schedule! That got some laughs.
They shared clips of James and his team going to the White House to hang out with President Biden, which is hilarious. Carpool with Stevie Wonder and a clip of Tom Cruise and jet fighter flying with James. Band leader Reggie Watts took the stage to talk about how he and James met for the first time and how Reggie thought is was cool.
James told Bryan he hopes to do Broadway again and host the Tonys again. Bryan told a story when he saw James for the first time in History Boys and it was a stunning performance. The next time Bryan saw James was in a play that blew his mind called “One Man Pickup” and that it was “fall out of your chair funny, wipe the tears from your eyes!”
A great moment on stage came when James and the two producers were asked to play a version of the show’s “Spill Your Guts” game. James was given a “congealed blood pudding and fisheye skewers,” Ben Winston was asked to eat a “hot sauce shooter” of Carolina Reaper peppers and Rob Crabbe was given a “mixed bug trifle.” Nice silver ice buckets were also given to them as vomit buckets! Ben Winston was asked what he thought James’s worse film was and instead of the shooter, he said “Lesbian Vampire Killers” (yes a real film). Rob Crabbe was asked to rank hosts he has worked with from best to worst, and he decided to eat his bug trifle. That was hard to watch! But he did it and grab some water to wash it down with. James was then asked who was the worst “Carpool Karaoke” singer and he too had to eat his lettuce wrapped “congealed blood pudding and fisheye skewers.” Awesome to have a front row seat to watch it live and it was also shown on the big screen. James immediately after taking a bite grabbed the vomit bucket and spit it out and probably threw up too! What a crazy game they came up with.
James went on to tell us how much the show and his team meant to him and how hard it is going to be to say goodbye to everyone and that he will now be unemployed with a smile on his face and have time with wife and children and go back home. Its been an overwhelming year for him this year and he knows it has gone by so fast. He also said that he hasn’t felt this scared since he decided to do the show in 2015 and he doesn’t know what he is going to do.
The night ended with a James telling us all:
“Through all of it, you will never know what it means to me, I love you very much, I love everyone that works on the show and I guess who would want to go out with me. The very thing we wanted to make the show about…joy, love, gratitude and thank you all very very much for supporting our show.”
Loud applause, whistling, cheers and a standing ovation for James, Ben, Rob and the Band.
They will all be missed!
Here are some photos courtesy of The Paley Center:
The last broadcast of the late-night show is set for April 27 — and CBS plans to air a prime-time special that same night to say its goodbyes.
They also revealed that James will be joined by Tom Cruise, for a big sketch during the special and that James and Cruise will team up for a live stint as certain characters, respectively, during a performance of “The Lion King” at LA’s Pantages Theatre. How cool would that have been to be in the audience to see that! Can’t wait to see if on April 27th on CBS
PaleyFest, now in its 40th year, is the nation’s original and longest-running festival celebrating creative in television. Produced by The Paley Center for Media, this year’s festival takes place March 31 – April 4 at the DOLBY Theatre in Hollywood. This year’s celebration features today’s hottest tv shows with a special screening picked for the audience followed by a panel and audience Q&A with the stars and creators of the series. PaleyFest is open to the public and tickets are currently on sale at PaleyFest.org.
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About Paley
The Paley Center for Media is the leading, nonprofit 501(c)(3) cultural institution whose mission is to preserve our media history and explore media’s powerful shaping influence on our culture and society.
During the year, the Paley Center produces unmatched programs for the public and industry. On the public side, our programs, such as PaleyFest, celebrate the very best of television, digital content, and interactive entertainment. On the industry side, the Paley Center serves as a think tank, convening the most influential business leaders to explore and debate the most critical issues and opportunities within the industry while also fostering a sense of community amongst peers. Through our respected PaleyImpact series, we educate and explore how media impacts culture and shapes public discourse on important societal issues.
At the heart of the Paley Center sits the Paley Archive, which represents the largest public collection of its kind and is often cited as a national treasure, with over 160,000 programs spanning more than 100 years. This collection also serves as an incredible resource for K-12 educators and students nationwide that we serve through our respected education programs and classes.