An entertainment industry insider is now claiming that CBS’ “The Late Late Show” with former British TV presenter James Corden was canceled because it was costing the network nearly $20 million a year to keep on air.
The show was canceled, with Corder hosting the last installment of the show, which ran for eight years, last week. He was paid about $5 million to host it, but brought in only about $45 million in revenue compared to the $65 million production costs of the show.
Speaking about the situation to Brian Stelter, the former CNN anchor, an anonymous source said, “It was simply not sustainable. CBS could not afford him anymore.” Continuing, the insider reportedly said that to keep it running, Corden would have had to take a massive pay cut, and there would have had to be large layoffs on the show, but the show was canceled instead.
That brought “The Late Late Show” to a screeching halt after 30 years of being on air. Corden’s leaving is no real surprise, even if the show’s cancellation is, as Deadline reported back in April of 2022 that Corden would leave the show before the summer of 2023, as CBS offered him a number of contract extensions, and he declined them.
Speaking to Deadline at the time, Corden said, “It’s been a really hard decision to leave because I’m so immensely proud of the show. I’m thrilled to be extending [for a year]. I always thought I’d do it for five years and then leave, and then I stayed on. I’ve really been thinking about it for a long time, thinking whether there might be one more adventure.”
He also said, “My bosses here at CBS have been incredibly supportive and extraordinarily patient with me while I made this decision.”
“We wish he could stay longer, but we are very proud he made CBS his American home and that this partnership will extend one more season on ‘The Late Late Show,’” CBS CEO George Cheeks said.
Because it was canceled, “The Late Late Show” does not have to deal with the Writers Guild strike that is now wreaking havoc in late-night show studios. Reporting on it in The American Tribune yesterday, we said:
Late-night talk shows such as The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Daily Show, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon are set to shut down starting on Tuesday, as the writers for them have agreed to go on strike.
Further, other shows are expected to be impacted but a final decision has not yet been made on them. Those are Saturday Night Live, Real Time with Bill Maher, and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
Seth Meyers, for his part, called the demands of the writing guild reasonable, saying, “I love writing. I love writing for TV. I love writing this show. I love that we get to come in with an idea for what we want to do every day and we get to work on it all afternoon and then I have the pleasure of coming out here. No one is entitled to a job in show business. But for those people who have a job, they are entitled to fair compensation. They are entitled to make a living. I think it’s a very reasonable demand that’s being set out by the guild. And I support those demands.”
An unnamed SNL star, speaking to Deadline about the situation, had a less positive view of the situation, saying, “We have to think about our crew too. I absolutely support the writers, and I want the writers to get what they deserve and need, but I don’t want our crew to be out of work. We can’t make this art without each other.”
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