James Corden is fast becoming like Jimmy Fallon: I like the guy a lot but I'm not really that interested in watching his show. Stand-up clearly doesn't come naturally to him and it feels like he's only doing a monologue because someone told him, "You're hosting a talk show. You have to do a monologue." He seems so much more at ease when he can talk to the audience outside of that form.
He's a good interviewer but those segments depend on landing guests who have something to say and — since they're interrogated in tandem — some sort of rapport between them. Last night, the rapport between Will Ferrell and Kevin Hart was because they were both there plugging their new movie. One of the good things about Tom Hanks' appearance Monday night was that he wasn't there to promote anything. It's probably too much to expect that to happen very often.
Tuesday night, Corden did a film piece where he went around with a pizza delivery guy and tried to get the customers to play games and invite them in. It was pure Leno…and those bits weren't all that wonderful when Jay did them. Then there was a "game" with guests Chris Pine and Patricia Arquette. I guess we have Fallon and maybe Ellen DeGeneres to thank for the idea that a talk show must have games for the guests to play. The one for Pine and Arquette may not have been rehearsed but it didn't seem to have any spontaneity in it. Last night, Ferrell and Hart played one that I don't think went as well as the producers had hoped.
I am not writing The Late Late Show with James Corden off. It's way too soon to do that and I'm sure it's going to get better and find an identity of its own. It's just going to take a while.
In other news, David Letterman did an embarrassing softball interview with Bill O'Reilly the other night. O'Reilly is really good at controlling any discussion he's in, whether as host or guest, and he pretty much dictated how far they were going to go discussing the recent accusations against him, and what Letterman had to accept as a response to his questions.
Dave does not look happy to me and the times I've watched recently — admittedly, not every night — feel like he's just going through the motions. One hopes that a parade of Big Name Guests making their final appearances, if there is to be such a thing, will energize his final weeks. Odd that we haven't heard any announcement about that, including the rumored Leno appearance, or of what Dave will do next. I somehow don't see him doing a Carsonesque self-exile…but then I don't see him doing anything else.
I have to say I'm becoming increasingly less enchanted with The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, especially the panel discussion segments. I don't know who most of these people are and they aren't around long enough for me to find out…or for them to say much of anything. This show too is playing a lot of games that don't seem to be working well for them. I still like Larry and the opening portions where he just sits and delivers material are sharp. After that, it feels like they still haven't decided what the show is about.
I've finally gotten around to watching full episodes of @Midnight with Chris Hardwick. I used to only see the first two minutes or so of each episode because they were on the end of my Tivoed recordings of Colbert. I liked what I saw but it somehow never dawned on me to set the TiVo to snare more than just the two minutes.
Well, I've started watching entire episodes and I like it a lot. Hardwick is a bright, likeable host who obviously has a big future in teevee. His guests do naught but play games but the games are good ones. Three comedians, occasionally including one we've heard of, are challenged to come up with funny answers to questions and situations. I don't know how far in advance the comics get the challenges or how much help the show gives them with answers but pretty much everyone seems to have decent ones when they need them. It sometimes feels a bit pre-scripted but it also feels funny and Hardwick keeps things moving at a brisk, you-can't-get-bored clip.
The last few years, almost every TV network has asked suppliers to come up with programming that interfaces with social media…ways to get the Facebook and YouTube crowds to watch conventional television. Hundreds of shows have been pitched with that in mind and a few have made it to the air. @Midnight is the only one I've seen that seems to have figured out how to do it. It's really a well-conceived, well-produced series and I don't know why it took me so long to take a Season Pass for it.