James Corden has announced that he will step down as host ofThe Late Late Show.
The 43-year-old star of Cats made the statement during a taping of the CBS talk show on Thursday, according to The New York Times.
Corden has held the role since 2015, when he took over the position from Craig Ferguson. The show originally launched with host Tom Snyder in 1995, who was followed by Craig Kilborn from 1999 to 2004.
Corden’s contract had been set to expire this August, but he has signed an extension that will keep him on the show until next spring.
“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,” said CBS president George Cheeks in a statement.
Corden was relatively unknown in the United States prior to landing the job off the back of his successful career in theatre and on British television.
In the last seven years he has become a well-known, if divisive, figure in America, helped in particular by the massive viral success of The Late Late Show‘s “Carpool Karaoke”. Such luminaries as Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga and Michelle Obama have all appeared in the segment alongside Corden.
While Corden’s next career move is unclear, he told The Sun in 2020 that: “Ending the show will always be a bigger family decision than a professional one.”
“It will be about people at home who we miss very, very much, who we are homesick for. I also feel like my wife and I have three young children, and they are three young grandchildren that we’ve taken away from people,” Corden added. “This probably feels particularly magnified now during the pandemic, but I have an overwhelming feeling that our family has walked to the beat of my drum for a very long time.”
