The Bill Simmons Podcast - James Corden on Returning to London, "Carpool Karaoke," Elections, and Sports in America (Ep. 222)

Episode Date: June 5, 2017

HBO and The Ringer's Bill Simmons brings on James Corden to discuss bringing 'The Late Late Show' to London (02:00), moving to America (12:30), starting his show as an unknown (21:30), the development of "Carpool Karaoke" (26:30), the logistics of success within today's media landscape (30:30), the time he spanked Donald Trump on Broadway (42:00), and improving the election process (45:00). Then they dive into the World Cup (55:00), the popularity of soccer in the U.S. (56:00), Bono's advice to Chris Martin regarding fame (01:03:00), the importance of television today (01:05:00), and James's friendship with Adele (01:12:30). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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who has never been on this show before. Fascinating guy. He's going to London for his show this week. And here's the podcast. All right. It is a Friday afternoon, Memorial Day weekend. We're holding this until the beginning of June. James Corden is here.

He's taking the show to London that week, so we're going to run it as a little promotion. But I'm glad we're finally able to do this. It's lovely to be here. It's the first time you've taken your show to London, right? It's the first time any, I show in this in its iteration that we're doing it has gone as far as we're going yeah like i think like conan and stuff does shows where he sort of but he he doesn't really take he goes and makes almost sort of travel documentaries but we like we're really it's a very ambitious thing to be doing with for our show like we're building a whole set in a

it's like almost 5 000 people right it's 5 000 over the course of the three shows yes it took a 2 000 seat venue i think and yeah it's an old it's in westminster cathedral hall which is sort of right opposite like big ben in the house of parliament and uh which was felt like a great idea a few months ago yeah because i was a bit like we can't go somewhere there's no point traveling the show to london and doing it in a tv studio do you know what i mean we might as well just stay here and change the backdrop and tell everyone we're in london how would you ever know you know i said we've got to be somewhere that feels like it's of London yeah but that's um now that we're very close to doing it like I leave tomorrow I can completely understand why

you would go and do it in a television studio because like it doesn't have a lighting rig and it doesn't have sound and all these things but I don't know it'll be fun I think I'm looking forward to it. The energy is incredible. I hope so i hope it will be you had would you have like a million people on the tickets for three days apparently so yeah there was apparently there was a million requests for the three nights of tickets in in the uk which is uh incredibly um i don't know overwhelming if you think about it too much but you know you never i always think someone might be lying to me when they say stuff like that that's just because it's really like 20 000 yeah well yeah i'd sell for 20 000

that's all right we really need five but i just yeah but i don't know apparently yeah does it i mean you were really big in england before you came here when you go back or do people say hey how's it going or like when you go back or do people say, Hey, how's it going? Or like when you coming back, like what's the attitude toward you? There's been a real sort of, I've really felt a sort of outpouring of people saying, I don't know, I guess pride. I don't know if that's the right word,

but that's certainly how it's felt that when I go home, people kind of say oh good for you because there's a lot of people who have come from home and tried to do television shows in America and have come with sort of quite have left Britain with quite a bluster and said I shall go to

America and repeat my success there and then they come back about a year and a half later and, and making a sort of terrible sitcom in Britain, you know? And I, and I, I was very,

I don't know. I sort of was fully expecting that to happen. So I don't know. I had no, I really didn't. I felt like the show would probably get canceled at some point. Like genuinely, like we rented furniture for a while, my wife and I.

Did you really? Because I was like, but we'll buy nothing because what's the chances, you know, of it ever working? I remember hearing when they picked you, thinking like, what the fuck are they doing? They're taking a British guy, put him at 1230. And it's just, it was just, I was surprised. Yeah, no, that makes two of us.

I think a lot of people felt that way. Yeah, oh, for sure. I mean, I thought it was a stupid thing to do. I thought it was a crazy decision at the time. But you wanted it though, right? You went to meet with Moonves for like a sitcom and you kind of got the idea to do a late night show instead? Not really.

That's not really, it's really it's that's the yeah what happened was i had come i had come to america and done sort of that this thing of just going around to loads of meetings with casting directors and presidents of whatever network and stuff and often those meetings are just dying of encouragement you just die of encouragement of people saying i'd love to work with you this would be fantastic yeah and stuff and often those meetings are just dying of encouragement you just die of encouragement of people saying i'd love to work with you this would be fantastic yeah and then you never hear from them again um and but in these meetings i had this idea i had an idea for a television show for a sort of comedy drama if you like and at home i had written two comedies which had done very well and in truth i sort of felt like I could only really repeat my success at home at best.

Yeah. And the chances of that were probably quite slim. So it felt like somewhere I wanted to come and try and make a TV show. And I felt, and in the end, to my absolute surprise, I had offers from sort of five networks really and uh and I decided that I was going to make my show for HBO I thought I was going to write this TV show for HBO it just felt like the right place to be it to do it and I was going to do a musical on Broadway I was going to do a funny thing happen on the way to the forum a Stephen Sondheim musical which I was very much sort of tentatively just starting to talk about doing and CBS had made without question the most aggressive offer financially

bar none I didn't know this at the time but Les Moonves who's my boss and Nina Tassler who was the then president had both seen me in a play on broadway and uh and i sort of went to meet them in new york uh because to explain to them my decision really and i was sort of going look i know you're disappointed but don't be i've done you a great favor because you were going to overpay for this script yeah the script i would hand in is never going to be on network TV. Believe me, if I felt I could write a multi-camera network sitcom, I'd do it tomorrow. Like, because that's, you know what I mean? That's the easiest.

Oh my God. But also you're set for the rest of your life. If you write friends, forget about it. Done. I was like, but this show, this idea, it isn't that. And what's going to happen is you're going to, I'm going to hand in a script you're going to hate it because you and you're going to be annoyed that you paid so much money

for it you're going to get me to change it I then in turn will hate you because you're changing it it'll never get made and we'll never work together and we'll hate each other I was like so don't be disappointed I'm saying I've done you a favor. You're never going to put this show on your network. Because it was dealing with very adult themes. Yeah. You know, there was sex in it. There was swearing in it. There was...

And Stephen Colbert had just been announced like a week before. And Craig Ferguson had just said he was stepping down. And I said, I told them that I felt um that steven coppe was an incredible appointment and also more than that the deft way that they handled it uh they didn't botch it at all there was no rumor there was no this that or the other lederman said he was stepping down it was sort of radio silence for a week and then bang he was. There was no drip feed of information, all that stuff. And I sort of said, from when I'd done the two times that I'd worked in New York was when I was in plays. And so I'd quite gotten into kind of watching late night TV.

And I said, I found that that 12.30 slot is a funny one for a network like CBS. I was like, if you're just going to make another late night show, you just don't. Don't bother. Nowhere else in television would you say, eight till nine, we're going to have a hospital drama, and then nine till ten, we're going to have a hospital drama

with the same diseases as the one before, you know? And I was like, you've got to try and make a younger show. Yeah. At least NBC has Chicago, but they, there's fire and then there's police. There's fire and all this, you know, there's CSI cyber and then there's CSI, whatever the other ones are, you know? And I was like, you got to make a show which will embrace the internet. You've got to make a show because the idea of that 12.30 slot

and late night was quite a high propensity of people watching that were students. I think it's safe to say, you know, stoners, people up late watching TV. I was like, that's not how they consume their content anymore. I mean, it is to an extent if it's on, but you've got to make a show

which can cast a net wider than that. And also, there is no risk attached to this, because you've got Steven, and you know what his show's going to be like, and you know that it's going to be great. And I wasn't pitching for it. Like, I really wasn't. We were just sort of talking about television and where it's going and how

this slot could really be a. So you're just giving them your theories on late night. I was like, I feel like this 1230 slot is a gift. If you can embrace the internet as like it can achieve a relevance past its time slot. How much did you know about embracing the internet at that point not a lot but i knew that that's how i had watched the tonight show yeah in the last couple

of years like i was a huge fan of jimmy fallon's uh in the uk where his show doesn't air and i was like i love this guy but no and i and it doesn't the show doesn't air then because I go on and I'll subscribe to that channel and I'll go and watch all this stuff and you know that's just what I sort of felt it should be really and yeah and then you know

and then we ended up being here were you scared to move here? I wasn't scared to move. I was scared of it. I didn't feel scared of moving. In fact, I felt excited about moving. I sort of felt like, I don't think anyone

lies on their deathbed and goes, I wish I hadn't lived in that other country for a while. You know, there is no way you can't, your life won't be enriched by just living somewhere else. And that's been an absolute truth for me and my wife and our children like it's uh it does it does a wonderful thing for a relationship when you go and move somewhere else because when you're at home you know you've

got old friends new friends friends as well as you've got you've got old friends, new friends, friends as well. You've got, you've got your people who are friends of yours as a couple. You've got your independent friends that you grew up with and you've got your friends who you perhaps go to work with. And it's when you move 13 hours on a plane away or 12 hours on a plane away, and it's just you, it's a really amazing thing. I've certainly felt that in my relationship with my wife that this this time now this past two years it's you're going well we're in this you and me together and we've moved our children here and we're gonna build a life from scratch and you you make friends and then you think you've made friends and you go oh i'm not sure i want to be friends with these people anymore do you know what i mean it's a really

strange it's a really weird sort of thing where you're choosing friends whereas actually at home i don't think i have that many new friends most of my friends at home are people i've known since i was 23 right then i'm i haven't made any made any new friends in London in the last seven or eight years. Because I'm like, well, these are my friends. I had a very similar thing because I moved out here in 2002. It was just me and my then fiance. And that was it. But I moved from Boston.

Yeah. So I'm in the United States. But going from Boston to LA is basically like moving to a different country anyway. It would be easier for you to move from Boston to London. Right. It's easier. You're right. It is London. It's easier to move from New York to London.

Like moving London to New York, it feels almost exactly the same. Of course it's different. It's wildly different. But the spirit and the core and the energy of the places are the same. Whereas moving to Los Angeles...

It's smarter to do it here though. Well, the overwhelming reason was we were like, there's so many other shows there. We're never going to have a guest. We'll never have a guest. Right. We'll never have a guest, you know? So, but I'm very, very pleased to live here.

I think it's a wonderful place. What's been the biggest surprise for you about America that you didn't expect? Well, I mean, I'm almost, I'm reticent to even say I live in America, really. That's the biggest thing I've realized is that Los Angeles. California. You know, it's so, but my biggest thing of living in Los Angeles, the thing I've been most overwhelmed by is that I think that there are more creative people in this city per square mile than anywhere else on the planet.

And that's the thing that no one says about it. All people ever say about Los Angeles is they seem to talk about these people. They talk about, Oh, fake people and this and the other, like there's none of them in London. Or I can name you a thousand or there's none of them in New York or there's none of them in london or i can name you a thousand or there's none of them in new york or there's none of them in chicago it's like of course those

people are there but my experience like of being here you know there are people here who i think are they blow my mind in in their volumes of creativity they make the fucking Simpsons here. Wherever they make the Simpsons, I'm like, I'm in. That's a good place. Because I don't understand how you can make a show that's as good as that consistently. I was shocked how many people

move here to do something. You know, most other parts of America, people are there because their parents were born there and they took over the house or whatever. Here, everybody comes here. So the amount of transplants, I was shocked. Like I'm from Boston.

I know a million people from Boston here. There's Chicago people and New York people and Texas people. It goes on and on. They all came here to achieve something. Do you find when you go back to Boston, because I find this if I go to New York or I go to certain pockets of London, if it's raining, which it rains a lot in Boston, right? Other weather's not always. Yeah, it's about nine terrible months and three decent ones.

So there you go. That's kind of London, really. And I go home and I'll look at people and I want to go over to them and go, you know it doesn't have to be like this. I say that to my dad all the time. He's still there. We have a writer on our show called Dickie Egan, who's a phenomenal writer and a brilliant brain.

And he's from Boston. And he says to his brothers all the time, they'll moan about the weather or whatever, and he'll go, just move over here. It's amazing. You have a garden. It's sunny every day. You know what it is?

Because I've talked to people back there about it. It's almost like when people are in prison and they learn how to make the best of the situation yeah yeah it's like it's great i get to go in the yard every couple hours of the day and i don't have any bills i don't know no one banging on my door saying where's your rent money food's taken care of you start rationalizing it and in boston they they're like, well, I love the seasons. I'd miss the seasons. It's like, what are the seasons? The seasons are, it's terrible for seven months a year. And then it's 97 degrees for two months a year.

And then somewhere in the middle of that are these fun 10 weeks. Well, also, you start to talk about a life that you don't have. People say, oh, no, but I can go to so many museums. I can go to so many restaurants. I can go to so many restaurants. And I look at them, I go, you haven't been to a fucking museum in years. You haven't been,

you're not a moma every weekend. You're not, you go to the same three restaurants. You, yeah, you know. I was back there two weeks ago for,

to go to a Sulta game, last week actually. And the weather had gotten nice and people just poured outside. But that is when it's, they hadn't even gotten their jogging bras on jogging bras on yet they're outside that is when it's great and that's the only thing i i do miss here is the very notion of being in a public city yeah new york london boston from what i've never been but from what you're saying about it when the sun's out and people get out on the street and you walk around and you that of it. That is a thing.

Because Los Angeles, what I've realized, isn't really a city. It's a collection of disparate towns. And what you have to do is find the town that you want to. I would even say it's territories, not towns. Yeah, maybe. It's almost like a gang. It's like, you have your little gangs over here, your little gangs over there,

and then everybody just kind of drifts from gang to gang. I live in Brentwood. So I'm sort of, I've never really felt like we're in a gang. No, no. I don't mean gang gang. I mean, you know what I mean. I know, I'm joking. But yeah, so I do miss that feeling of a public city, of getting out and seeing different people.

Well, you said you'd never been to Boston. So I went to London for four weeks for the olympics oh yeah which was like the best family trip i've ever had yeah it's great and london you remember i was there when in london thinking oh yeah london built boston because it's very similar yes it is yes yeah and it's even like a better version of boston because there's even like more drinking there's better public transportation. There's a lot of drinking, for sure. Just people pouring out at three in the afternoon.

And when we were there, just by chance, the weather was beautiful. It was. So everybody was so happy. Everyone was so happy. When the sun shines, there's nowhere else I'd rather be than sat on Primrose Hill in London. I would take it over the southern coast of Italy, the south of France, Barcelona, Mexico, and Miami Beach. I would take it over

everywhere because on a hot, sunny day, if you're lucky enough to be in London town, you will see a spirit of people which is unmatched anywhere else. And we, when we were there, everybody in London was worried about, we're not ready for the Olympics. The weather's going to be terrible. Of course. This is going to be a disaster. But that's, that's goes back to my feeling about the show. That's just how you're brought up. It's a,

it's not glass half empty. It's just, you know, I'm lucky I got a glass, you know, I don't know what's in it. We'll find out, you know, it's a lot of that. Quick break to talk about texture. How do we keep this podcast fresh? Well, I read a ton of stuff every day, including a bunch of magazines on the texture app. Texture gives me access to hundreds of magazines, good ones like the Atlantic, New York Magazine, New Yorker, SI, all in one place. On my tablet or phone, they have daily recommendations, interactive features, videos, and more. They make it easy to find and enjoy the articles I want to read.

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for your 14 day free trial. Back to James Corden. So you come come here how long did you take to plan the show how many months oh no well we only had uh we had 11 weeks from arriving to our first show yeah and when you showed up you that you hadn't even hired a staff yet we'd hired six people so we had to hire another 70 i think oh my god uh and build a set and work out what the show was and find a band for Reggie and everything, really. We had to do everything. We had to build everything. Everything you see on the thing was done between sort of, yeah, January.

Yeah. January, yeah, it was like three months. I moved out here in 2002 to work for Kimo when he was launching his show. Right, yeah. Because we were friends and then it just happened. And that three months goes by so fast. All of a sudden there's a hundred people there and there's a band and a stage and you're planning it. And it's just, you're like, wow, that date's coming soon where we're going to launch this thing.

And it's like in speed mode. Yeah. and it's like in speed mode. Yeah, it's a very strange time really because certainly if you're the host of a show, what I realized is when you're in that period of gearing it up and getting everything together and tonally trying to think what it is and going out and shooting stuff and things like this, you start, and I've never really hosted a show like this before,

and you start to think, you start to feel like you're on, you are, you're just on a team. Yeah. You're on a team and you start to think you start to feel like you're on you are you're just on a team yeah you're on a team and you start to even feel like oh well i'm just one of the team i'm just one of the team here and then very very slowly on the day that you're going to air which our first day was like march 23rd people start to tap you on the shoulder and go hey good luck out there hey good luck hey yeah rooting for you man hey good and very slowly people start to tap you on the shoulder and go hey good luck out there hey good luck hey yeah rooting for you man hey good and very slowly people start to leave you and you make this walk on your own until it comes to a point where the last person goes all right have a good one and you're stood behind a curtain looking at the sort of backward reflection of a spotlight thinking oh i'm not

on a team at all this is on my own now own now. And this curtain's going to open. And I'm going to walk out. I'm going to say hello. And I don't know if people are going to go, nah. You're right. Or, ah, okay, yeah. And it's incredibly daunting. And especially knowing where we were

and how gobsmackingly unknown it all was. And I was, and we were. Like, it was crazy that we didn't even have guests for show sort of six when we launched. Kimo had that too. Like, zero. No one. You get the first two shows, you get the good ones and then all of a sudden

you're scrambling until everybody's kind of waiting to see if it's going to be good enough. We just had to call in favors and I spent about sort of four days just driving around publicist's offices just going,

promise you, I'm not a bad guy. It's going to be okay. And more than that, like we were then asking people, we were saying, look, we're going to bring all our guests out at the same time. And you would meet a publicist who would say, well, my client would never do that. My client won't sit with someone else. And luckily for us, there's a show in the UK called The Graham Norton Show,

which I've been watching. That's a show I've seen on YouTube a bunch of times. It's a brilliant show times it's a brilliant show it's a brilliant talk show and luckily for us we had the knowledge of that show and i was able to go no but your client did though yeah i saw your client like a month ago sat next to such and such and such and such yeah and also just so you know they were brilliant on that show i would say it's the best interview i've seen them give and publicists would go right well okay yeah fine well we'll see how we go you know and it was a lot of that it was it was a real like i couldn't get in our building without my

pass a month after we'd aired well you're talking about the structure of what late night shows were supposed to be for those publicists where it's like my client's going to come out lead guests for eight minutes music you have three stories yeah you're going to lead them toward the three stories you're going to show a clip yeah it's going to be seem like it's ad lib but it's really not and then they leave they don't have to worry about what might happen in that structure of course yeah but if they're ad-libbing and they're sitting next to like gary bucey something crazy happens like who the hell knows? I can see their point if that was the case.

I really feel if that's the case, I'm on the publicist's side on that one. And I think if our show ever gets to that point, I'm saying to you now, I want you to get in the car, drive to the studio, tap me on the shoulder and go, James, it's done. It's time to go home. Busey harassed another guest. If I'm sat in our show and Busey's there, it's time to go home you see harassed another guest if i'm sat in our show and bucey's there i'm saying to you but i want you to come down all right get in and

go i'll drive my car through the studio time's up it's time to go back to london it must have flipped with the publicist once so let's say the carpool karaoke thing all of a sudden they're trying to get i'm sure you had like a million people trying to get their clients into that car with you um yes i think so i mean i don't i don't hear a lot to be about that no i'm not i'm saying i don't i don't hear a lot about that because we have sort of we've we've as soon as that segment felt like it was a thing and was becoming a thing we we felt like we had to implement our own rules really and go uh okay we have to sort of try and protect this look we could do it every week if we wanted we've only put out two this year and they were in the last eight days yeah you have a danger a danger element to that where if you beat it in the ground, it's not fun anymore.

Exactly. So we were like, we have to preserve this only for the biggest or most relevant music artists in the world. Yeah. And that's it. We cannot break that rule. So of course I want to get in the car and do it with, I don't know. A hundred people. I'd love to, but nothing would give me more joy than driving around in a car and do it with, I don't know. A hundred people. I'd love to, but nothing would give me more joy than driving around in a car and singing songs with Will Ferrell.

It would be, and it would be amazing TV, but we feel like we have to keep it in that sort of rarefied air. Because that's the only way it will ever sort of sustain itself really so you're trying to do like five a year maybe i mean look we never put a number on it because it just comes around to who's got albums out who do we think is interesting who's got a tour to promote and who you know uh and of course there's a list of names where you're like, they're the golden names. If, you know, if Billy Joel's around, nothing would give me more joy than doing it with Billy Joel. You haven't done Billy Joel yet, have you? No, God, no, no, no. I was going to say, I would remember it because my daughter's seen, I think, all of these and I would remember the Billy Joel.

Yeah, no, he's amazing. So who knows, you know, we'll see. We've got, yeah. Can you explain to me, I hate asking about carpool karaoke because i know everybody asks you about it it's all right so you're driving yes very close to these studios we drive where are you driving what neighborhoods how fast are you going we basically uh well i mean obviously it depends where we are so the adele one we did in london madonna we did in new york but predominantly we're here. Uh, we drive in a

convoy. There's a car in front of us, two cars behind us and one car that we'll drive around or alongside or get, you know, exterior shots of the car or whatever. Do people know it's your convoy or no? Not really. I mean, if we stop at the lights and they see it's Katy Perry or whatever, then yeah. But predominantly, the rule is we just drive in a straight line away from the sun. Away from the sun. Interesting. So you don't get like weird mirror shadows on your face and stuff. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's kind of it.

So we just, we get on normally on like Beverly and drive as far as we can. I think it's really impressive you're driving. That you're singing. But it's Los Angeles. So you're driving in increments. Let's be clear. I'm driving in Hollywood. You're going two blocks. Between the hours of 10am and 5pm where

really, how fast can you ever be going? So I'm very relieved of the stops. It's great. I'm still impressed thank you yeah my wife can't drive when she's not singing with adele but she can't drive i mean yeah so it's just that's it we just we just try and yeah that's it really i'm very i'm very proud of it i really am i know that like sometimes you sort of shouldn't be but i really am well i mean the youtube views are it's I can't even imagine.

But you can't associate success to like that sort of thing. I'm not associating the success. I'm talking about like just how many countries must have seen it. I think that's probably the coolest part. I can't even imagine. What's interesting for us is outside of like YouTube, when we launched two years ago, we were on in eight countries. And I think we're now on in 152.

Wow. And that growth is only really down to the show's relevance on the internet, which then makes other territories say we'd like to buy that show because we see that people love it here, and it gets picked up on morning news in Finland or whatever that we've done a bit with Orlando Bloom or whatever it is. And some network chief somewhere says, oh, we should buy that show.

People like it. And that's like, I'm very, because we want to make a profitable show for our network. And I feel like in, we just know that making a show at 1237 at night, we can't ever really move the dial when it comes to um ratings we can't we can't move that no people don't change the channel at 1237 so we have to make a show which can be consumed all throughout the day like i don't know how old your daughter

is that you just mentioned but i 12 yeah i doubt she's ever watched our show when it's on television. My kids don't watch cable channels. Yeah, of course. They just watch everything on Hulu and Netflix and YouTube. Yeah, and on their phone. And on Amazon. And so we feel we have to be a show that is at the forefront of that digitally. It's interesting because I've known Kimmel for 15 years as this changed because YouTube didn't really even show up to 06.

No. And then around 09, it became a way to cheat on actually watching the show. Yeah. You just catch up on it. I came from the generation, like, I'm a Letterman guy. That was my guy. Yeah. It was like, if you miss Letterman, that's it.

You missed it. If your VCR screwed up or whatever, it was gone. And then somebody told you, oh, did you see the last thing? And you're like, nah, I missed it yeah if your vcr screwed up or whatever was gone and then somebody told you oh did you see it last thing you're like nah i missed it and that's why i think there's no there's none of this sort of much as people would love to create it there's none of this kind of friction or uh or stuff between like hosts anymore yeah because people don't have to choose one person people don't have to make a choice it's all there they can choose to watch you know this show at that hour

and know that tomorrow I'm going to watch these segments and this segment like you know I couldn't tell you what our sort of Nielsen number is I don't know but I do know I know how many subscribers we have on YouTube I know how many people we have on youtube i know how

many people watch the show on facebook live i know all of those numbers are the numbers that i know and the social media kind of just being relevant well that's all i think late night's about yeah it's all it's ever been about being in the in the conversation i don't think late night's changed i just think the way that people consume it has changed. Because if back when Letterman and Steve Martin had their big day out, that would have been millions of people would have watched that on YouTube today. When he dunked himself, covered in Rice Krispies into a huge thing of milk, probably four or five million people would have watched that clip. And when he put up a new Petrix, people would have watched it. When Leno does a jaywalking, people would have watched that clip. And when he put up a new Petrix, people would have watched it.

When Leno does a jaywalking, people would have watched it. The very notion of the content that you're putting out hasn't changed. And all we ever try and do is think of our show, what's the beginning, the middle, and the end, what's in part four, what's in part two, what's in part six. But knowing that our show will be consumed and live over here. And that's the space that I'm kind of more interested in anyway, because it's a truer number.

It's a truer number. It's a number where we're not reliant on a big football game or a playoff final or a big drama or award show to move the needle. And sometimes you're even drafting off the prime time lineup or the show before you, stuff like that. It can go back to 8 p.m. Yeah. Like, let's not forget, these shows were created by networks to go,

people will fall asleep with the TV on. Right. And when they turn it back on in the morning, it will be on that channel. True. So if we boost our last show at night, we'll boost our morning number. That's where it came from. And it's a fixed cost.

They pay you, they pay your staff. They already have the studio. I mean, it's just the same number every year. That's it. So the ad sales, all that stuff.

Yeah. That's why late night will never go away. I mean, really where it is now is a pretty good place because you still have, I'm sure you love the conversations. I'm sure you see the guest list like, Oh, that's great. I can't wait to talk to that person. Oh yeah. You're still able to be relevant with the social stuff and you're hitting basically in two different places. But also when you said like the conversations, you know, we had a, Jim Carrey was on our show on Tuesday.

Yeah. And his interview, you know, there's a sort of four minute part of that interview. We sort of break up our interviews into probably four or five minute segments online. One of those is at like 800,000 views, which is like just a one four minute clip of an interview and the next one's at six and the next one's at three. know it just i don't know i just think it's a truer

number another quick break to talk about credit wise from capital one you know what numbers are great whip war pr offensive rating otr on their own they don't tell the whole story credit isn't any different with credit it's all about how well you perform against the factors that go into a credit score. How good are you at paying your bills on time? How much credit do you have spread across different accounts? How long have those accounts been open? Stuff like that affects your credit health and there's no single score that lenders use. So you know when these factors are key. And just like on the field, there's a lot more to credit than knowing your score. CreditWise lets you track the factors that make up your credit health using information from your TransUnion credit report.

The app can help you spot errors, identify theft, and it lays out information you need to understand your behaviors and how they impact your credit health. And you can check it anytime without negatively impacting your credit. It's 100% percent free for everybody, whether you're a Capital One customer or not. Step up your game. Download CreditWise today. Back to James Corden. How much does the audience affect the decisions you make with the show day to day? In the room? Massively for us um we have quite a young crowd at our show which can which is wonderful it's brilliant but uh yeah oh yeah always and then they don't yeah we always think about our audience but then

i also think that we have some we have we have a bit on our show it is so stupid it might be the stupidest thing we've ever done on our show called dogs in sunglasses it's utterly ridiculous it's so stupid I don't know if you've been on the internet there are so many pictures of dogs wearing sunglasses

and so we've written this we've written this thing where we go I do it very straight and I go I want to talk to you about this guy let me tell you about this guy and it'll be a dog wearing sunglasses and I go, I want to talk to you about this guy. Let me tell you about this guy. And it'll be a dog wearing sunglasses.

And I go, this guy, if this guy says there ain't nothing wrong, there ain't nothing wrong. Or like, let me see, is that an actual dog in sunglasses? Yeah, look. So look, look how many dogs are wearing sunglasses. You can't move. So what we do is,

we'll pull up this guy. And we'll go, let me talk to you about this guy guy this guy blew out his knee in a rollerblading uh blew out his knee in a rollerblading accident which prevented him from ever competing professionally and now he owns a tanning salon and you know and this was where and then who the fun this is this guy this guy's gonna spot you alone's going to spot you alone. This guy will spot you alone. And he's going to say, there's no timeline on this and no interest. But you're going to have to suck his dick.

And that in our room, in the audience, is met by the single most confused faces I've ever seen. But we go, I don't know, me and ever seen but we go i don't know me and our star our writers we go i know i just know that there might be nine per 10 viewers at home there might be nine perplexed faces but there's one person's going this is really tickling me and you can't leave them out so that's a segment for them for sure mean, that's the best thing about that time slide is you can get wonky every once in a while. Oh, man, yeah. We love it.

Especially like around the 115, 122 range. Yeah, the whole thing. We love it. I mean, like, we love... That's why we've done it a couple of times. I think we're going to try and do it again. We've gone and just done a show in someone's house and that's been completely organic. We've never prepped a couple of times. I think we're going to try and do it again. We've gone and just done a show in someone's house and that's been completely

organic. We've never prepped a house, nothing. We've got a permit for a street guests in a van and we walk down the road, knock on the door and say, can I come in and shoot? And the, and what we want to do is get part one with no cuts.

So people will say no, or people aren't home or someone on an intercom says absolutely not and then the few times we've done it people have said yeah and we go when we come back we're doing the show in this house and i love it that's when i really enjoy it how many years now has been two what's been the highlight so far oh man i don't know was there one moment that you let go this is when i knew the show was gonna make it i don't know i don't mean this the way it sounds it sort of felt like that from the end of the first show actually well no i wasn't confident before that show but at the end of that show when it came out i was like oh this is we got it felt

like i don't know i'm very proud of how quickly we found our feats of how we just sort of hit the ground running we knew that we didn't have a relationship with an audience where they would give us the benefit of time yeah we knew that people were going to make up their mind on the show and me very, very quickly. And there's other hosts who, you know, if you've been on a huge show for a decade, you're going to have a group of people who are going to give you a shot and give you a chance, you know. So I can't, I don't know if I can pin it to like a moment, but I don't know. We won like those two Emmys last year, which was incredible.

And then we won the Critics' Choice Award where we were up against, like, Kimmel and John Oliver and shows that I just love, a daily show, you know? And to win that was like, wow. But I think it's all been a joy. It would be hard to pick a... I don't know, it's quite weird when you're in, like, the White House with the First Lady and Michelle Obama and she's saying, I've always wanted to do this.

And you're thinking, oh, my God, I'm from High Wycombe, you know, in Buckinghamshire. This is lunacy. It's all been a very... It'll be even better when you have Melania. I mean, I feel like you're joking, but it might be, you know. It genuinely might, if that day ever comes. If you get Melania to do a carpool karaoke,

I guarantee you'll get some views. I'm so interested to see what she would say about stuff. You know, I did a play in 2012 on Broadway, and I brought Donald Trump up on stage because there was a bit in our show where I would always bring someone up on stage to help me move this piece of scenery. And every night in New York, there would be wonderful people came to see the show. Gene Wilder's in one night and Tom Hanks is in another night. And it was really incredible. And you can't bring those people up on stage because it could be seen as almost disrespectful. But I, Trump, I was talking to my friend Ollie before the show.

I was like, you can't really lose because half the audience don't like him anyway. So if we bring him up, we'll win with either all of the crowd or half of the crowd and i said hate watch it or they'll watch it yeah so i said to ollie i was like i'm gonna see and with that play that we were doing one man two governors you can you can tell what the rest of the show is going to be like within the first 15 minutes you know whether this is an audience who's up for it or aren't and that can be be dependent on the weather or whatever it is. And they were a little slow and they were a little cold, and I was like, I'm bringing him up.

And so I just grabbed him. I brought him up on stage. I was spanking him. I fired him. And Melania was there, and yeah, she sent me an email that night going, oh, it was so funny. It was lovely. You defended Fallon after the hair thing, right?

A couple months later? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's not that I, it's not even, I don't think even defend is the right word. I was just like, I don't think you can just mock, go back, watch everyone's interviews with him. Yeah.

Watch Kimmel's interview with him, or Stephen Colbert's interview with him, or the time where he called in on a or Stephen Colbert's interview with him or the time where he called in on a phone to Colbert's monologue and then watch Jimmy's one where he ruffles his hair it's like no one took it seriously no one was asking the right questions yeah and Jimmy's the only thing the only reason people are outraged at Jimmy's one is it's uh there are people outraged at that who haven't even watched that interview they've just seen a gif or a meme of him ruffling his hair. They've seen outrage trending over here and they too are outraged without

anything. And you've got to watch them all. You've got to watch them all. You've got to watch everybody. I mean, he hosted SNL like what? Eight, nine months before that.

Four months before that. Yeah. You know, I think it was the timing of it that hurt Fallon that time it had passed the point where it wasn't like oh Trump he's trying to, now then people are like

oh my god he might actually win this and I think that's what backfired on him more than anything no I just think the internet is a wonderful place to whip up a storm and I don't think I don't think it's fair i also don't believe that late night hosts should be your barometer for where your interview is or what whether they

should be the people that are asking the the best questions like um i don't know that you should look to your late night hosts for your news or opinion uh and it's a strange thing today because it sort of feels like that that might be the case well it's definitely helped colbert last last couple months i think i think him and and seth meyers have definitely know, gotten behind in the politics thing and it's helped. Of course. Drive more eyeballs. A hundred percent because there's no, who are the other voices?

The most mystifying thing I've found in America is, since moving here, is a lack of democratic party leadership. Yeah. Who are the opposing voices? Who are the opposition party? Who are the opposition party? Who are they? Who's the leader? But it's a strange thing because

the notion of running that party is a quest to be president one day. It's probably not going to happen for like two years and whoever gets chosen will be the person that runs for president as opposed to going wouldn't it be better to go, let's find our leader now. And then in 18 months time, that very person, what a great position they'll be in to then run for presidency as already having been the leader of this party for 18 months.

No, America loves like the late coming person nobody saw coming. It's not even the late coming person. There's no people. Who is it? Maybe they're coming. No, but who is it? I'm kind of serious.

I would love to know. Because like Jeremy Corbyn has been running, there's an election going to happen at home in a few weeks. Jeremy Corbyn's been the leader of the Labour Party for the last, a minimum of 18 months, if not longer. Yeah. So, and now he's just running for election.

And when our election takes seven weeks, by the way, it's a much smaller country. Yeah. So, when there are a lack of voices, what you end up looking to are the people who are saying just anything. Just someone say something to a group who are, as it stands in this country right now, the majority

of people who didn't vote for Donald Trump. Who's the leader of the Democratic Party? I don't understand it. It's mystifying to me that the Democratic Party haven't held an election to. It's mystifying to me that the Democratic Party haven't held an election to elect who will be their leader and that person will run to be the President of the United States for the Democratic Party next time.

And you can sort of get rid of another group of 15 people turning up and massive debates and all these things. Just do it now. Do it today. Do it now and lead that party and lead that voices so that when that election comes people know who they where they stand and what people stand for and then you don't end up in this position right now time you want to applaud am i wrong though no you're right i feel like because i feel like what happens is you go what do you stand for what do you stand for?

What do you stand for? And that's all you want to know from a politician. But when it ends up and it's almost sort of, it's like American Idol. There's that many people auditioning and there's the heat rounds and you make it to boot camp and then the debates and the thing. It's not show business. It's politics.

Yeah. You know? So that's why I think... Well, when we have President The Rock in 2020, I think it'll all be fine. Well, I mean, yeah, probably. But who knows? You know? He solved the San Andreas Fault earthquake.

You know? Yeah, but you could have done that. If you were there at the same time, you'd have made the same choices. We all would. You know? But, yeah, I find it very strange, that. If you were there at the same time, you'd have made the same choices. We all would, you know, but yeah, I find it very strange that,

and I find the, is your home country in better shape now? Politically, do you think, are you optimistic? I don't know what sort of shape we're in. Um, I sort of worry about like Brexit.

I was sort of very opposed to that happening. So we'll see. It's just, it's a sort of astonishing time politically. It's more chaotic there or here right now? I think it's probably, I don't know. I mean, it's hard. It's hard because of those, I haven't been there for a while. So I don't know.

It's hard for me to say where it might be more chaotic or not. But it's also a far smaller country. I mean, you can fit Britain into Texas 280 times, you know, like that's how vast America is. So it's difficult to sort of compare the two really, you know. So I spent, yeah, four weeks there. The things that jumped out to me, the day drinking was phenomenal. Yeah. Just the spirit of that. And it always, it always seemed like it was Friday at three o'clock, but like every day was like that. Um, which, you know, here it's really only Fridays like that. Uh, how much,

how much I walked and hopping on subways and it was great. It was like the best things I've liked about Boston and New York, but way better. Yeah. It's just, you're always kind of on theways and it was great it was like the best things i've liked about boston and new york but way better yeah it's just you're always kind of on the move and going here to there all that stuff um and people were just friendly you know and it made me think like here in la that the one thing i don't like that much about la is what everybody says about being trapped to your car and you're just going from point a to point b to point c Well, there isn't a sense of community here. No. Community doesn't exist because there isn't a middle. There isn't a center. I mean, I drive around LA and sometimes I think,

did no one think to just build something? Some form of monument, anything. Give us a fountain. Give us something. Give us a sort of central point it's the staple center in the shack statue yeah i don't know if that's enough and and so that sense of community in britain is really quite astonishing um which i do think you have in new york and i do feel like you get in. Certainly, you get a sense of sort of pride.

Chicago has it, too. Yeah. San Francisco, some parts have it. There's pieces all over the place. As far as the drinking goes, it is astonishing. I don't know. I feel like if you have two glasses of wine here in L.A., if you have four glasses of wine, more or less,

if you have four glasses of wine in L.A., someone's calling an intervention. If you have four glasses of wine more realistic if you have four glasses of wine in la someone's calling an intervention if you have four glasses of wine in britain you're the designated driver do you know what i mean like that's how ridiculous it is and a lot of uh smoking too which i'd forgotten it was like a lot of a lot of cigarettes and just it was old school well i think the smoking is getting less and less i think so yeah well ifiring? I think so, yeah. Well, I certainly hope so, but I think so. You know, as younger generations are coming through. But that, it's that sort of culture of the pub,

of going to the pub, you know? Sitting in the pub, a few drinks, your mates, which is actually, I have to say, never been a massive part of my life, really. I'm not a huge drinker. And if I do, I never really drink like a pint of lager i quite like a vodka cranberry you know so it's like i'm quite sort of i guess effeminate in that way uh the uh the walk to wimbledon was incredible to walk to like getting off at the the train stop Wimbledon, yeah. The walk to, like, getting off at the train stop,

and then it's like this 10-minute when you're like, is it really here? And then it's like, yeah, it's down there on the road. You're like, I feel like I'm in a housing estate. Yeah, are we in the right spot? Yeah, and then you just happen upon... And then all of a sudden, there it is. And they're like...

And it's so classy, Wimbledon. It's the best. It's so classy. It was so cool. I loved it. There's no big advertising billboards or hoardings anywhere. There's just a class to it, which I think is probably the best of Britishness.

And Wembley was staggering, just the size. Wembley Stadium? Yeah, it was just like, whoa. We saw, I think, the gold medal women's soccer game there. Right. It was just like, oh my God, this is just a lot of people. Who is your team? Do you have one? I support West Ham United, who are East London Premier League football team. We've been relegated three times in the last sort of 15 years.

But they are the team for my sins that I have chosen. But that's good though, right? Yeah. It's better to root for that than the like Manchester United. It just means so much if we win anything. Yeah. You know, it means the world. Like not that we ever do, but should we ever win a trophy?

You can look at Leicester City and be like, that could be us someday. Yeah. Probably not. That's what Leicester City said. No, I know. And I listen. It's the hope that kills you. We have a song that we sing called I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles.

It's like West Ham's song. And there's a bit in it where it says, Fortune's always hiding. I've looked everywhere. But I'm forever blowing bubbles. Pretty bubbles in the air. United, United, United. And that's our song.

And nothing will tell you more about the state of a team's fans than if their own song, they've talked about how there's really no fortune anywhere. That's why Boston and England always had the connection because Boston, until we started winning titles the last 12 years, was always fatalistic. Yeah. The worst possible thing.

That was the Red Sox mentality. Yeah. The worst thing's going to happen at all times. Yeah. And England's great at that. World Cup, do you get on the bandwagon for that one? Oh, yeah. I love it.

The World Cup's the greatest. And England has a checkered history. Well, yeah. So do most teams. But the World Cup in itself. England's pretty checkered. There's some checkers. Yeah, but same as Uruguay.

You know what I mean? Like, you know, I'm saying there's a lot of teams. No, I'm saying there's a lot of teams. There's every team in the world. And so it's not that it's, you know, yeah, it's not that it's Checker. I just love the World Cup in it. We even, we created a TV show at home on itv that went live after the world cup yeah me and my best friend ben who's the exec producer of the late show here we were like we created a tv show

just on the sole purpose that we could then watch the world cup every day and make a show after it it's that good it's amazing i wish amer America would get into football and stop sort of- It's happening. This decade has been the decade that it's starting to happen. I know, but it's never really going to happen until- It's not going to be like what England's like. But it's never going to happen until the MLS understand the joy and the beauty of defending.

Like a 1-0 win. A stealth shot at the MLS. No, but a 1-0 win is a great thing. Yeah. The MLS. No, but a 1-0 win is a great thing. Yeah. The MLS is triple A. But a 0-0 draw, a 0-0 draw, is every MLS owner's worst nightmare. Right.

It's like, oh my God, there were no goals. Sometimes we'll have a 0-0. It's an exhilarating, wonderful game. But if you, now watching the MLS, if you get used to these winning games six four seven three four one like i think we have we scored four goals in a game once this season right in like 40 games you know so this is doing better than i thought it would do but it's still i love it i mean the amount of people the amount of people at the galaxy and i love the galaxy i

love the ground i love the stadium stadium. I love the team. I think it's awesome, and I think it's great. I just think you've got to kind of... But, you know, the way the sport here is so strange. Like, I've got really into basketball since I've moved here. I feel like that's the game I respond most to. It's my favorite sport. Yeah, I think it's the game I respond most to,

and going to watch the Clippers and stuff is amazing. But it really is insanity that you would play that many games just for a playoff position 82 and then you go into the playoffs it's just insane people were talking because LeBron had all this rest and then was playing great in the playoffs with the rest and people are this is what it would be like if they had a premier league schedule but they play twice a week and LeBron was rested for every game. He would be incredible. 100%. Who replaced Beckham as like kind of the prince of, of, uh, English football? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Uh. That was a pretty big void. Well, after Beckham, we had players like Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, who was still playing. Yeah, but none of those guys were on the Beckham level though. As players they were. But not as like icons. Oh yeah, but that's the thing you're talking though. As players, they were. Not as, like, icons. Oh, yeah, but that's the thing you're talking about.

You're talking about commercials and endorsements. That's what I'm asking. But you've never sounded more American than you did just then. I'm saying, like, the big guy, the great guy who also gets all the spoils. Like, right now we have Durant, we have LeBron, we have Westbrook, and, you know, the guys who have kind of transcended the sport. Is there anyone like that now for English football? There would be many people who would tell you that Stephen Gerrard and what he did for Liverpool was like astounding.

Like it was a and he was a absolute superstar. No one I don't think has filled David's void of being quite so magnificent at being a brand, if you like. He is just a model sport. And what was incredible about David was that he was a phenomenally gifted player who could curl free kicks into a top left hand corner and was just like outrageous to watch and was incredible but now we have we have some players coming through now we have a player called deli ali who and to my absolute annoyance plays for tottenham and harry kane who's a striker and those two look like they're genuine like world beaters they're genuinely

incredible players. When Beckham came here, people don't know anything about soccer. So he comes and it's like, this guy has amazing crosses. And people are like, what? Does he score? How many goals do they have? And it's like, no, that's not what's good about watching Beckham. Like Gerrard, same thing, where it's like,

it's the attention to detail. Some of the stuff that wasn't goals was what made them great. That's my point about America and football is it will only... They don't get it. Yeah, but that's the same as I don't get baseball. I mean, I don't get baseball at all. I feel like I'm watching a group of people I don't know have a picnic. Like that's it.

That's what I'm seeing. I'm like, yeah, I can pay to watch people have a picnic. That's so long as we all understand that's what I'm seeing. I'm like, yeah, I can pay to watch people have a picnic. That's so long as we all understand that's what we're doing. Yeah. A thousand times in a three month window of summer. But I'm well aware, painfully aware that the reason I don't get into baseball is because I don't really understand it. That's what most people here were like with soccer. They didn't understand that there could be an awesome one nothing game. Yeah. People are like, well, I don't understand. Nobody's what most people here were like with soccer. They didn't understand that there could be an awesome one-nothing game.

Yeah. People were like, well, I don't understand. Nobody's scorer. Why don't they? What if they got rid of offsides? Yeah. Well, I heard a story once that there was an owner. I can't remember where he was from.

There was an owner. I think he was a Chinese owner, bought a soccer team. And their defender, they had a defender who was on a massive wage, maybe on like 150 grand a week or whatever. And he was looking at the wage bill for the team

and he immediately set about, he said, I'm not paying this. He's only scored twice in the last year. And they were like, yeah, he's a defender. You know, if they don't score, we've got a better chance of winning, right? You know, it's that notion of the art of defending.

That's it. Do you have a pick between Barcelona and Real Madrid? Real Madrid, have you picked sides? I haven't picked sides either. Not really. I don't really feel the need to. It's not, you know. I think a lot of people feel the need to.

I don't feel the need to, though. Well, no, I've picked my team. Yeah. And then everyone else I can appreciate. When they play against each other, I find myself rooting for Barcelona, but it's more like the kind of soccer that I like. Well, I would root for Real Madrid

only because Gareth Bale plays for them and he's a really nice guy. So that would be my, that was my frame of reference. I'm actually going to go to the Champions League final next Saturday, which is in Cardiff, which is Real Madrid v Juventus, which I think will be an amazing... Do you think America needs a royal family?

No, because I don't think it's something you can invent. Yeah. I don't think... I think we have the Kardashians. You do. I don't think it's something you can... I don't think it could ever work because america's so big it's so huge it's so vast that's ultimately i think the biggest problem with america

is the money's on the left and the right and then all of the uh infrastructure and the produce uh is in the middle it would be a lot easier if California was its own country and Texas was its own country. I don't know if it would be easier. America would make more sense. Oh, no, I don't know if it would be easier, but it's just a really hard thing to navigate that, I think. So it would be really difficult to have a royal family

that everyone could agree on. Not that we all agree on it at home. It seems like the royal family is in the best shape from a scandal standpoint that it's been in a while. Yeah, it seems to be, doesn't it? Yeah, it's almost like I need a Harry needs to kind of go off the rails a little bit or something. It's a little too boring.

It seems like he's dating an actress now. Apparently so. I like him very much much i'm a big fan of his i'm a big fan of all of them but you're right it has been quite scandal free for a while it's too bad there wasn't a third sibling that they kind of didn't talk about that much who's just over there it took seven years to graduate college and yeah he's getting in trouble a little bit more fun last thing uh you showed up alone and i commented on how you showed up alone and you were surprised because sometimes people have entourages will you tell the youtube story oh sure yeah well you were saying oh i couldn't think who else i would uh be here with really and and uh we were saying how the people come with publicists and things like that and i

just i don't know just never really felt like it's something that i need to sort of do right now um and i and we were talking about people who have massive entourages and i it reminded me of a there's a story where apparently uh coldplay were touring with U2 right at the start of the Parachutes album coming out. And that album, and particularly the song Yellow, had started to do really well for Coldplay in the UK and in Europe. And Chris Martin could feel that there was a sort of wave changing at home and they were becoming more popular. And he said to Bono, have you got any advice?

Have you got any advice you could just hand over to me? And he said, and Bono's advice to Chris Martin was, he just said, if you're consistently going out for dinner and everyone sat around the table is on your payroll, you've probably become a prick. And I think there's something to be said for that you can't always just be surrounded by people who have got skin in the game that is you you know you've got to uh still be a person i think that's the yeah it's a good story why i forgot to ask you why is english tv

why does america have to keep stealing from english tv shows I think that's the, yeah, it's a good story. Why? I forgot to ask you, why is English TV? Why does America have to keep stealing from English TV shows? Uh, I don't know if they keep, why are you guys so good at this? I listen. We're not, I'm using a, you guys like,

it's very kind of, it's very kind of you to say that, but it isn't the case. It is. It's, it's the same on both sides of the Atlantic. We, I like to hear that. We only get the best of your stuff yeah and you only get the best of our stuff so we don't get like the just the reams of sort of terrible television that you might make we will just get

these and there and there are things that american television can do that no one else in the world can do. No country, not a country on the planet has been able to crack Saturday Night Live other than America. You're right. No one's been able to do it. And believe me, countless people have tried. Seinfeld, Curb, Larry Sanders, The West Wing, Breaking Bad, House of Cards, Bloodline, Big Little Lies. It is a right now.

These are television shows, which this is us. Have you watched this show? Yeah. Oh, my. My wife's my wife cries during all of them. I have to. I feel like my heart can't take it anymore. My heart feels like it's going to explode when i watch it i get so full of just emotion and and love and and a

wonder at how you can make a show as deftly as that i don't understand how it's possible it's brilliant um so i think it's a very common misconception to say, oh, we can't do it like that. It's just not true. There are people making television now and people making films and people writing plays. But if we're talking about television, there are people doing it now and today who are above anything else that's ever happened in the world of television before. That are telling stories. It's inconceivable would be told on television even a decade ago. It's the most wonderful time for television is today. It's just that the parameters of what we thought television was

and what it currently is and what it's going to be are blurred. So people can start to sort of freak out, but I find it nothing but exciting because right now today content is the king content is the absolute king where a show like

The Handmaid's Tale can come out on Hulu and it's just a masterpiece and This Is Us can be on NBC and Atlanta can be on FA I Atlanta can be on FM. I mean, fuck me, Atlanta.

Like, there is better television being made right now in this country than has ever happened before. I think I agree. I was like, last time I was watching American Gods, that show's really good. They think we're just... Well, also our... B-plus shows are just coming out of the woodwork

left and right now. Our barometer for what is good and what we demand from a show now is so much greater than it ever was because the wealth of option is huge. The only thing that's a worry, the only thing that worries me in the world of streaming

all this stuff is i don't think and i hope it doesn't happen i fear it will but i hope it doesn't you would never lose sight of what television is at its best for what it's used at its best for what it's its most pertinent and potent sort of um ingredient is that it can be a tool to bring people together. Yeah. It can be a tool to bring people together. And my worry is that it will become an insular experience. It will become an experience of one as opposed to an experience of five,

which is the house I grew up in, which is me, my mum and me and my two sisters, you know, my two sisters and me and my two sister you know my two sisters and I and my parents and now television is becoming a solo project it's a thing you do on your own and that's the only thing that I get scared about and that's where network television just has to embrace its itself and we hope that we will have those still have those incredible moments like the last episode of Friends or the Super Bowl or the World Cup final. I mean, sport is the sport's the common denominator in that. And I feel like it's up to us as consumers to make sure we still share those moments together. We're as responsible as the very people giving us the shows

to make sure that these are things that we are enjoying with our loved ones and our people. Like I want to make sure that I watch shows with my son, with my daughter, with my wife, and that we have things that we will all watch together. Because if we're not careful, it will just become a one-on-one experience between your phone and yourself.

And you'll come into work and you'll go, oh, I've been watching this show. And they'll go, don't tell me, I'm only on episode nine. And you're like, well, I'm on season 11. You know, that's where we've got to, we have to be as responsible as that, to that, as the very people who are giving us that content. That's why I thought the most interesting thing that happened this year TV-wise

was SNL running the East Coast version on the West Coast to try to get everybody to see the show at the same time for the experience. Because it really was a problem where the East Coast, we couldn't see it out here for an extra three hours. And it didn't hurt the ratings. It was actually good. It was good for the ratings. It was actually good. It was good for the ratings. It was good for whatever people getting excited about the show right away.

And it made me think like, as long as the networks keep saying to themselves, let's just try it. Then we're in good shape. If they, if they're stuck in that mode of no, no, this is the way we've always done it.

We can't. That's when I think there will get into trouble. Well, my experience of working on a network right now is I've seen nothing but like, look, the very fact that I'm here talking to you right now is the best example of a network going, let's just try it. Yeah. It's as good an example as one as you'll ever find.

Like, I am the most ridiculous appointment and so i do believe that there are people in networks and i and i believe in the power of network television i just think it's gonna it's just gonna shape itself slightly differently i forgot to ask you why jules holland gets so many good musical guests. What is it about that guy? Because he respects the artist and the music. His YouTube, the YouTube clips of people who have sang on that show for the last, I don't know how many years he's been on. But if you... It's like a who's who.

Of course, but artists will respond. No one greater than a recording artist will respond to someone who they feel truly respects music. And that's, I feel like I'm not bringing this back to like our show, but that's how we got Stevie Wonder. Yeah. And Adele and, you know, Lady Gaga and Bruno, people who don't necessarily do that many things, is they go, oh, I see.

This person actually respects the form of it and writing a song. And Jules' show is a masterpiece, man. And also everyone gets to perform three songs. It's in that beautiful 360 set. Yeah. It's joyous to watch. And now, I forgot to tell you that Adele, I actually had a little crush on her after that segment.

She's great. She's sexy, huh? Like, there's a bodiness about her. She seems like she'd be fun to hang out with. Yeah, I mean, we've known her a long time. My wife's known her, like, probably over 10 years. She'll throw them down, right? She'll get the second, third bottle of wine out.

Oh, she's just great. She's so much fun. She's wonderful. She's as good a person as you can ever meet. And I'll tell you the most amazing thing, at a real moment, because obviously when you're hanging out and you're just hanging out together and stuff,

you never forget how famous she is. You never forget how unbelievably famous she is you do forget how unbelievably talented she is yeah and she came around to our house just a few weeks before the grammys and she'd said that she was going to do this um tribute to george michael at the grammys and she said can i play you this? She played this to my wife and I, and it was just her in the shower singing this sort of ballad version of George Michael's song Fast Love. And my whole body, every hair on my body stood up.

And you're like, oh, shit. I forgot how unbelievable your voice is, you know? And it's always a joy if she's around. You had that with Jennifer Hudson too. That was when I was like, oh, I forgot she has one of the greatest voices about them. That voice will knock you over. I mean, that voice is insane.

I think she's going to do a bit on our London shows next week. I think, I hope. All right, so what are the dates for London? I think we're in London the 6th, 7th, and 8th of June. That week we'll be coming from Westminster Cathedral Hall. It's going to be fun. I hope. I think.

We'll see. Good luck. I'm excited for you. That'll be fun. Thanks, man. What a pleasure. Thanks for doing this. Good luck with the West Ham.

Oh, man. We need it. Hear the song about how tortured you are. It's probably a bad sign. Jeez. Thank you so much. Bless you. Thanks so much to stamps.com.

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USA, N.A. And thanks to Binge Mode, The Ringer's newest podcast, which launched today. Congratulations to Mallory Rubin and Jason Concepcion and all of the Game of Thrones nerds out there. It is the greatest television show we have.

It is the television show that people have the most opinions and theories on, and nobody has better opinions and theories on the first 60 episodes than Mallory and Jason re-experienced the show episode by episode, 10 a week, 60 in total. And when I say this is a deep dive, I cannot exaggerate. This is the deepest of dives. Anyway, binge mode, subscribe, wherever you get podcasts. I'll be back later this week with a live podcast, not live, but semi-live from Cleveland on Wednesday. Until then.