The Glaring Red Flags We Missed About James Corden Before He Left The Late Late Show

Late-night television is in dire straits, especially if "The Late Show" is really being canceled in 2026 owing to financial failure. While money wasn't mentioned when CBS canceled "The Late Late Show" in 2023, the show was reportedly losing $20 million a year. On top of that, its host, James Corden, had been facing a months-long series of allegations regarding his allegedly rude and cruel behavior.

Rumors had persisted for many years that there was a shady side to James Corden long before the end of "The Late Late Show." Corden had managed to reinvent himself, and Americans were mostly unaware of his poor relationship with the British tabloids and other performers. His CBS show gave him a fresh start, but Corden's consistently boorish behavior would inevitably come back to haunt him. In a sense, he came full circle from when he found fame, seemingly letting it go to his head every time.

James Corden was an admittedly unlikely candidate for fame, and he didn't react well to his sudden popularity after "History Boys" in 2006 and "Gavin & Stacey" in 2007. His hard-partying behavior and public all-nighters were tabloid fodder for quite some time. 

"I think I had a bit of a swagger," Corden told The Guardian in 2008 about developing a kind of overconfidence. He added, "I think I was a little bit rude to people, I think I started to think I was a bit more of a dude than I really was." In a 2009 interview with The Guardian, Corden admitted to always being a bit narcissistic, saying, "This arrogance thing ... I've had that my whole life. I flip between, 'Oh really? Oh, thank you. Wow. That's amazing,' and 'Yeah! Of course I am.'"

Apparently, his personal behavior began to affect his professional life, leading to an intervention of sorts by his family and co-workers, according to The New Yorker. His own mother told the outlet, "You can try and say, 'Look, James, you're making a prat of yourself,' but you can only do so much."

James Corden's runaway success stalled in 2009 after a pair of derided titles with his "Gavin & Stacey" co-star, Matthew Horne (the movie "Lesbian Vampire Killers" and the sketch show "Horne & Corden," both in 2009).

It also didn't help that Corden was seen as rude and ungrateful at the 2008 awards for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. He won Best Male Comedy Performance for "Gavin & Stacey," which also won the Audience Award. In his second acceptance speech, Corden complained that the show hadn't been nominated for Best Comedy. The criticism poured in from the media. "James Corden: The backlash begins," read one headline in The Independent.

The backlash seemingly made Corden even nastier, which he at least admitted to. "As 2008 wore on, it got so bad I was being rude to my agent and I even started being rude to Ruth," he wrote in his autobiography, "Can I Have Your Attention Please?" (per Digital Spy). "If I was in company and the conversation wasn't revolving around me, I would just switch off."

Hosting gigs in 2009 and 2010 only exacerbated criticism of James Corden. Despite the success of their show "Gavin & Stacey," Corden's professional collaboration with Matthew Horne seemed on its way out after the failures of their sketch show and vampire movie. Then came the 2009 Brit Awards, which the pair hosted together (with Kylie Minogue) to a disastrous response. As The Guardian put it in their headline, "Horne and Corden: Is this the end?"

Again, Corden knew how bad it was, later telling The Daily Mail, "We were so poor I can't even watch it." It was so bad that, when he was somehow invited back to host in 2011, Twitter erupted in backlash. "If the Brit awards wasn't bad enough, it just got a whole lot worse. I despise James Corden," wrote one person (via Digital Spy). Corden responded on Twitter, "I just read some comments about me hosting the Brits. I'm not sure what to say really except I'll try my best. I was looking forward to it."

Corden had another disastrous leading gig when he hosted the 2010 Glamour Women of the Year Awards, where he pulled funny faces while presenters and winners spoke. This annoyed many, including Patrick Stewart, who got into a profane argument with Corden while presenting an award. "From where I was sitting, I could see your belly," said Stewart, to which Corden responded, "You could see my belly. I can see you dying right now." He revealed his true feelings when he told Stewart, "When you come up and present an award, just f***ing get on with it." 

Just as James Corden's career seemed to be at its end and his reputation was at a low point, he found renewed success and redemption in 2011 as the lead in the musical comedy, "One Man, Two Guvnors." This kickstarted a musical career and starring roles in film adaptations "Into the Woods" (2014) and "Cats" (2019).

However, fans of musical theater were already sounding the alarm about Corden, noticing something others didn't. To them, Corden was a below-average performer who was punching way above his weight. "He's a mediocre performer, but he's a terrible person IRL from what I know. Rude to restaurant staff, etc.," wrote one person on Reddit. Another added, "Fine isn't good enough to be cast in multiple lead roles in musicals. Especially not when there are so many people out there who are exceptional." There are hundreds of vitriolic comments attacking Corden in a separate Reddit thread, "Why did (or does) everyone hate James Corden?"

A Reddit thread about "Into the Woods" is filled with comments panning Corden's performance. "It was the start of me thinking 'James Corden Must Be Stopped,'" commented one Redditor. "James Corden ruins everything he touches," wrote another Redditor in a different thread about the film. Even "Cats" creator Andrew Lloyd Webber disliked Corden's performance in the film adaptation and wanted it to be cut. Musical theater fans actually started a petition to ensure Corden wasn't cast in the film adaptation of "Wicked" after casting rumors emerged.

James Corden's celebrity profile rose considerably when he took over "The Late Late Show" in March 2015. Unfortunately, it seemed like his old ways joined Corden when he moved to California. It became abundantly clear how little Corden thought of his staff when he was put on blast by Jimmy Kimmel, who exposed Corden's rudeness during a 2016 segment on "The Late Late Show." Corden revealed he didn't know the names of his own staff when Kimmel asked him to identify any two camera operators on the show.

Allegations were later made that Corden attempted to pay his staff writers less by giving them promotions without corresponding wages. "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" writer Jack Ellison tweeted (via LadBible), "I'd like to state once again for the record that I went to a WGA meeting for only late night writers, and James Corden showed up without any of his staffers to advocate for a lower pay grade for late night writers." LadBible reported that TV writer Nick Wigel backed up this account, as did writer/producer Ben Fletcher.

Corden denied this version of events, writing on Twitter, "What you've written here is completely untrue. I asked if there could be a new writers programme for people who have interned for a year on a show and want to be writers." People weren't buying his story, though, as one Twitter commenter pointed out: "It's crazy that you have ten million followers and only two of them liked this reply."

James Corden drew a lot of attention when he kissed singer Harry Styles in December 2017, which garnered glee and laughter from many but made many members of the LGBTQ+ community cringe. It was hardly the first time Corden had kissed another man for laughs. In fact, there's a popular YouTube montage of Corden kissing Daniel Radcliffe, Bryan Cranston, David Walliams, Matthew Horne, and other straight men. He even kissed Donald Trump's former press secretary, Sean Spicer. The implication is that Corden thinks two men kissing is just a joke.

As Patrick Lenton wrote in Junkee, "Corden is something of a repeat offender; 'having a lil' kiss with a bloke' is one of the most common 'jokes' in his repertoire." Lenton added, "James Corden is not queer himself. In fact, if he was, his persistence in trotting out this trick for comedy would actually be closer to sexual harassment." Similarly, Corden was criticized for his over-the-top, caricaturized portrayal of a gay man in the 2020 movie "The Prom," with critics referring to his "insulting" performance as "gayface."

An article in Highsnobiety (via Tumblr) analyzed why Corden's behavior was a problematic example of queerbaiting: "It's easy to write this off as just another s*** joke, or as another example of James Corden being praised for doing the absolute bare minimum, but there's a wider context which needs to be examined." The piece continued, "The fact remains that straight men get praised for being open to kissing other dudes, whereas gay men just open themselves up to homophobia."

James Corden and "The Late Late Show" found success with "Carpool Karaoke," in which Corden attempted to sing over more famous people. Nevertheless, a robust demographic of Corden haters remained who weren't afraid to voice their opinions. This was made evident by an infamous 2019 Ask Me Anything (or AMA) on Reddit in which he and members of "The Late Late Show" staff answered online questions. Things went hilariously bad for Corden.

One Redditor received 3.3 thousand upvotes when they asked, "Have you ever considered being funny or likable?" Another comment garnered 2.7 thousand upvotes when a person asked if CBS could bring back the previous host of "The Late Late Show," and 1.5 thousand upvotes went to the question, "As a professional a**hole, are bidets worth it?" More than one thousand people upvoted the question, "Why do you treat fans like s***?" Hundreds of comments persisted in this manner, with Redditors believing that Corden was far different from his "nice guy" image on TV.

Ultimately, Corden only answered three actual questions before ending the AMA, and the whole fiasco has become notorious as one of the most humiliating AMAs for any celebrity. The term "boozy panda" became associated with Corden after one Redditor recounted witnessing Corden's rude behavior at a restaurant. "You were a massively entitled c*** who yelled and treated the waitstaff like s*** and when one of my party politely suggested you calm down, you got really aggressive and threatening (in a chubby way. Like a boozy panda.)," wrote the Redditor, a red flag foreshadowing Corden's biggest controversy.

As the popular Reddit comment noted, James Corden seemed to have a hard time behaving himself at restaurants. While there were many aforementioned red flags about his behavior, Corden's public perception was still generally positive (especially in America, where people were largely unaware of the backlash he experienced in the 2000s overseas). That all changed in October 2022 when Keith McNally, the owner of several famous New York City restaurants, banned Corden from one of them and railed against him in an Instagram post.

Before sharing multiple managers' reports about Corden's allegedly abhorrent behavior toward the staff, McNally wrote, "James Corden is a hugely gifted comedian, but a tiny cretin of a man. And the most abusive customer to my Balthazar servers since the restaurant opened 25 years ago." Amusingly, many commenters on his Instagram post were more annoyed that McNally called Corden a "gifted comedian" than anything else.

Corden's response to the situation was decidedly ambiguous. McNally later reversed the ban, telling Page Six, "Two hours after the post came out, Corden began bombarding me with texts and calls. He sounded so desperate I almost regret posting about the episode." While Corden may have apologized privately, he was more indifferent publicly, telling The New York Times, "I haven't done anything wrong, on any level," adding, "I think it's so silly. I just think it's beneath all of us. It's beneath you. It's certainly beneath your publication." Corden needed to get real to save his reputation, and he failed to do so.

Keith McNally's public shaming of James Corden seemed to create a permission structure for others to come forward with their own stories of the talk show host's bad behavior. More anecdotal allegations of Corden's rude behavior emerged, especially from the hospitality industry.

One bartender wrote on X, "The list of celebrities I've waited on throughout my years working in OC at the ritz, and other high end places is vast. Most celebrities are nice, some are bad tippers. However, there are a few celebrities that really take the cake, James is 1. So rude!" Makeup artist Becky Habersberger, wife of Try Guy star Keith Habersberger, went viral on TikTok when she recounted seeing Corden berating a busboy outside a restaurant.

This occurred around the time Corden announced his departure from "The Late Late Show." A former staffer from "The Late Late Show" told The Daily Mail, "James dug his grave and he can cry all he wants, but he did this to himself." "His staff stood behind him for so long, but it got very old. His ego was over the top and he truly believed he was untouchable," said the source, adding, "It's not sad. It is karma. Many people left his shows because he did not treat people the way that they deserved to be treated."

As criticizing James Corden became more normalized, a variety of public figures began to call him out for supposed plagiarism, further exacerbating the talk show host's issues ahead of his departure from "The Late Late Show." Jerry Seinfeld vaguely did so years prior, claiming that "Carpool Karaoke" mimicked the structure of his "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" show, but more direct accusations came in late 2022 as Corden's show was winding down.

First, audiences noticed that a joke in one of Corden's monologues seemed to directly copy a Ricky Gervais joke, with the same setup and structure involving a town square and a poster for guitar lessons. Gervais later stated that Corden apologized to him directly about the joke, and the talk show host wrote on X, "Inadvertently told a brilliant Ricky Gervais joke on the show last night, obviously not knowing it came from him." Comments on his post were deactivated, so social media users couldn't call him out or address rumors of the alleged feud between Gervais and Corden.

Then, fans of the British comedian Noel Fielding noticed that one of his jokes seemed to be lifted by Corden in 2017. Again, it was almost a direct copy of the previous joke, which in this case was about how suddenly whispering could stop a mugger in their tracks. When a fan asked Fielding about this, he responded on X, "Yes I believe this is my material." It doesn't seem like Corden ever addressed this, or Andy Cohen's complaint that "The Late Late Show" copied his set from "Watch What Happens Live."

As "The Late Late Show" spent its final months on the air, more celebrities revealed they seemingly couldn't stand James Corden. Spice Girls singer Mel B called him one of "the biggest d***head" celebrities she'd met on "The Big Narstie Show" in December 2022, something she doubled down on a year later.

Then, a few weeks before Corden's final episode on April 27, 2023, director Craig Duncan spoke out about his experience working with Corden in a 2013 segment for the British game show "A League of Their Own." In a YouTube video, Duncan alleged that Corden's production company asked him, "How are you at working with difficult presenters?" Their warning was appropriate, as Duncan recounted how Corden allegedly rushed the crew, forced them to rewrite jokes at the last minute, and pushed them to film things differently. The director recalled Corden shouting, "What the f*** is going on here? It's obvious what you do. ... It's so obvious how you shoot it, you're stupid."

With all the negative attention on Corden, "The Late Late Show" came to an end with a surprising lack of media attention, with the LAist asking in a headline, "Why Aren't More People Talking About James Corden's Farewell To 'The Late Late Show'?" While Corden claimed his true motive for leaving the show was family-related and had nothing to do with his declining reputation, he did admit that most people he encountered in England believed he was fired.