When James Corden departs his late-night series this spring, he’s taking The Late Late Show with him. That’s according to a report from Deadline, which states that instead of replacing the Carpool Karaoke creator or choosing to do a guest-host period à la The Daily Show, CBS will have a new series take The Late Late Show’s 12:30 a.m. time slot.
It will reportedly be a reboot of @midnight, a comedic panel game show that ran for 600 episodes, from 2013 to 2017, on Comedy Central. Although the original iteration of the series was hosted by Chris Hardwick, he’s unlikely to be involved in the new version, according to Deadline. (After Hardwick was accused of emotional abuse by an ex-girlfriend in 2018, Yvette Nicole Brown briefly replaced him as host of the AMC series Talking Dead, and the second season of his show Talking With Chris Hardwick was pulled from the air; following an internal investigation at the network, he was reinstated. He has denied the claims.)
Stephen Colbert, who hosts The Late Show, will executive produce the reboot in addition to fulfilling similar duties on the Comedy Central series Tooning Out the News and Hell of a Week With Charlamagne Tha God. (Vanity Fair has reached out to CBS for comment.)
Corden, who was primarily known as a Tony-winning British actor prior to his late-night gig, succeeded Craig Ferguson in 2015. The Late Late Show originally launched in 1995 with host Tom Snyder, who was succeeded by Craig Kilborn. Corden announced his exit from The Late Late Show last April, telling his live studio audience: “When I started this journey, it was always going to be just that. It was going to be a journey, an adventure. I never saw it as my final destination, you know? And I never want this show to overstay its welcome in any way. I always want to love making it.”
His departure is only the latest in a turbulent period that’s marked a massive sea change for late-night TV, with the end of series including Full Frontal With Samantha Bee and Desus & Mero, as well as the departures of Corden and Trevor Noah—who bid farewell to The Daily Show with a surprise announcement last fall.
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