The Late Night Show Landscape and James Corden

The Late Night Show Landscape and where James Corden could place himself?

The Late-Night talk shows in America are a rather unusual phenomenon. No other country has so many different talk shows, with such varied and widespread popularity. I see myself yearning to be the host of one someday, so I was excited and a tad jealous when I heard that a Brit would be taking one over. James Corden (JC) is one of Britain's most prized celebrities having shown himself to be skilled across the arts. In particular, One Man, Two Guvnors left me in stitches, whilst 'Gavin and Stacey' was a roaring success of a sitcom, and 'A League of Their Own' is the only Sports panel show I watch. Not just that, but he is amiable (see Comic Relief Video) making him a worthy successor to Craig Ferguson on the Late Late Show.

The main motivation behind this post came from David Letterman himself, who in an interview referred to JC as that 'chubby guy from Great Britain'.  He then proceeded to ask 'where's the tubby kid?' in reference to the 3 months James Corden has taken to begin his tenure as host (due to obvious scheduling conflicts, and uprooting his entire life by moving to LA). Moreover, Letterman is a producer on JC's show, so makes money off of JC (why did David Letterman slander him, to the extent he then had to issue an apology on air?). It just frustrates me...when I'm on the radio I don't play a song just to follow it up by saying how awful I find that song. The only person who comes across poorly in my opinion is David Letterman.

As a point of reference, I have attached a list of rankings of the late night shows, by their Nielsen ratings (used in TV to assess the popularity of a show with regards to demographics, the list below is in the 18-49 category).
1. The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — 1.28 (3.9 million viewers)
2. The Jimmy Kimmel Show — .64 (2.7 million)
3. Late Night with Seth Meyers — .64 (1.6 million)
4. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart — .56 (1.4 million)
5. The Late Show with David Letterman .47 (2.49 million)
6. The Colbert Report — .45 (1.1 million)
7. Nightline — .41 (1.67 million)
8. Last Call with Carson Daly — .35 (878,000)
9. Conan — .34 (734,000)
10. The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson — .30 (1.2 million)

A few pieces of information to bear in mind:

• The Late Late Show  is what proceeds David Letterman's (soon to be Stephen Colbert's) show. Therefore, to some extent, there is a symbiotic relationship between the two shows. They can each create both negative, and positive effects for the other. This relationship is also seen between Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers. The latter of which is partially sitting pretty at number three due to Jimmy Fallon's raging success!
• The average performance of both David Letterman and Craig Ferguson (5th and 10th respectively) probably encouraged their resignations (and also explains why Craig Ferguson is not replacing Letterman, as was in his contract).
• Conan O'Brien is at 9. awks.

Without further ado, I shall attempt to try something that no student has done before, I am going to apply my degree. I'll assume two major factors that make a successful host/show: Amiability/Banterousness (just...go with it) and how topical it is (what with the Colbert report and the Daily Show so high up, political satire and being current are extremely vital).

Back in my first term when I was 'studying' Managerial Economics we learnt about the Lancaster Paradigm model. Whereby, one uses graphs to analyse where they ought to place something in the market such that it is unique. It is a graphical interpretation of a Unique Selling Point. Using my two main factors I have drawn up a line of where Stephen Colbert will most likely be, as are Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers and finally, where James Corden should place himself.

From the graph above we can see that not only should James Corden make himself a true Bantersaurus-rex, but we can further see that it will complement Colbert nicely, as he will most likely stay true to his satirical roots.

(James Corden hopping on board the Banter-Bus)

As a final couple of points I should add that in my opinion James Corden is very good at creating chemistry with big celebrities and really coaxing them into doing fun things, or chatting freely. In his show he has said he will bring out all the guests at once. (whoa, steady on JC)

Last but not least, every Late-Night talk show has it's own in-house band. In my opinion they reflect the feel of the show. Jimmy Fallon has The Roots, a very hip &very funky band. Seth Meyers has Fred Armisen leading his band, Fred Armisen is known as more cooky, a bit arty and very fun. David Letterman had Paul Shaffer, a more accomplished musician steeped in musical history (just as David Letterman is on the Late-Night scene. I knew this analogy would pay off!).

James Corden has Reggie Watts, a famous beatboxer/comedian/jack-of-all-trades. He's very funny in a slightly less mainstream, weird way. So that should be very interesting! Below is a clip of him on Conan O'Brien. (Wait, isn't that also a Late-Night talk show Ish?)

Why yes, yes it is. See what I did there.

I wish James (yes, we're on a first name basis) the best of luck on Monday!