Late-Night Wars? It’s All Quiet On Talk-Show Front As Rival Hosts Get Together For James Corden’s Exit

EXCLUSIVE, UPDATED with video: The days of war between late-night hosts like David Letterman, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien are long gone.

It’s a full détente, it seems, as a skit on the final episode of The Late Late Show with James Corden will highlight.

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Deadline understands that Corden got together the likes of The Late Show’s Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show’s Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel Live!’s Jimmy Kimmel and Late Night’s Seth Meyers for a sketch. The group apparently filmed it together, though we hear that Kimmel filmed his bit remotely.

While Letterman and Leno fought it out in the ratings and before that a chance to host The Tonight Show and O’Brien had his own battle with Leno at NBC, this generation of hosts have been brought together during the past eight years by such things as the pandemic and the Donald Trump presidency.

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They regularly appear on one another’s shows, as evidenced by Meyers, Corden’s time-slot rival, turning up recently on The Late Late Show, and Corden going on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week. Even John Oliver, who has beaten them all for the late-night Emmy each of the past seven years, has appeared regularly with his former Daily Show pal Colbert and with Meyers.

Corden told Deadline that he doesn’t think there’s any rivalry anymore.

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“I’ve certainly never felt any ever,” he said. “When I got the job, I read both Bill Carter books [The Late Shift and The War for Late Night], and it was like, ‘Oh, f*ck.’ Then you get there and you meet all these people along the way, and they have just been nothing but loving, kind and supportive. I feel like as a group, we have really been through a time which is unmatched.”

The Late Late Show exec producer Rob Crabbe, who has worked with Fallon and Letterman, added there’s a “mutual respect” among the hosts.

“Generationally, they all grew up watching their parents fights in the sense of the previous generation, they didn’t necessarily get along,” he said. “But it doesn’t need to be that cutthroat. There’s something there for everybody. This isn’t a blood sport. Everybody works in comedy and has pretty amenable personalities, so why not just get along?”

Click back later for the full sketch. Meanwhile, here’s a look back at Corden’s Late Late Show career:

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