James Corden Can’t Convince Brits That He Wasn’t Fired from ‘The Late Late Show’

When James Corden ended his tenure on The Late Late Show last year, was it, possibly, a “You can’t fire me, I quit!” kind of situation? The losers of the “Who gets stuck with James Corden?” competition sure think it was.

Back in April, 2023, Corden said goodbye to American late-night television after eight years of batting cleanup in the CBS late slot. Corden took the reins from another U.K. comedy icon, the incomparable Craig Ferguson, back in 2015, ushering in an era of internet-obsessed clickability that turned the late-night formula on its head and rubbed more than a couple comedy traditionalists the wrong way in the process. Following the announcement that he would leave The Late Late Show, Corden’s extended farewell tour coincided with the USA vs. England matchup in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, when tens of thousands of soccer fans on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean agreed that whichever country lost the game would have to take in Corden following his retirement from late-night. The match ended in a draw, but, a year and a half later, England has been suffering the real defeat as Corden continues his career in his home country.

On Tuesday, Corden returned to American late-night to speak with his old friend and colleague Jimmy Kimmel, telling his host about the adjustment he and his family have made to living in the U.K. once again. However, Corden’s once-and-current neighbors don’t believe his cover story that he left The Late Late Show and moved home to “spend more time cussing out his family.” 

When Corden first left The Late Late Show, he told the entertainment world that he and his wife Julia wanted to raise their three children near their extended family back in London. That’s a perfectly believable reason that anyone would make a major career move, but it still didn’t fly in the U.K. capital.

“People are very nice,” Corden said of the characteristically stiff Brits who welcomed him and his family home, “But no one believes that I wasn’t fired.” Corden further explained, “I’ll be in a pub or something, and people will be like… ‘Well, why’d you come back?' And I'll be like, ‘Well Max just finished sixth grade and we really wanted him to have a relationship with his grandparents.’” Typically, says Corden, their response is along the lines of, “You don’t have to give me that bullshit. It’s fine, mate. If you got fired, you got fired.”

Corden said of his former gig, "Nobody thinks you would ever leave what is, let’s be honest, a cushy existence.”

“Can’t you get a letter from CBS saying that you were not fired, that you left of your own free will?” Kimmel asked his guest.

Corden replied, "I would, except they don’t know what CBS is.”