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How cuddly Corden smiled his way into American hearts: Funnyman James - backed by a star-studded cast - proves the critics wrong as Late Late Show host

By Tom Leonard In New York For The Daily Mail

Published: 19:41 EST, 24 March 2015 | Updated: 23:03 EST, 24 March 2015

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Nobody had a clue who he was. And there were ominous rumours that Americans didn’t understand his accent or his jokes. He’d be just another snooty Brit, sneering at their guns and religion, it was feared. Even the man himself predicted he was going to be a ‘disaster’.

But James Corden largely confounded the sceptics in his first outing yesterday as host of the US chat show The Late Late Show on CBS.

Backed by an all-star supporting cast that included Tom Hanks, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eddie Redmayne and Meryl Streep, the British actor and presenter introduced himself to a somewhat bemused America as a lad from High Wycombe who couldn’t believe his luck.

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Success: James Corden chats with his first guests, Tom Hanks and Mila Kunis, on The Late Late Show with James Corden, which premiered in the U.S. on Monday night

The cuddly star of sitcom Gavin & Stacey and the comedy play One Man, Two Guvnors would not be many people’s first choice to host a network TV show going out to millions of night-owl Americans.

There are more than enough Brits on US TV as it is, and some were hoping that CBS would finally break the stranglehold of white men on late-night chat shows by giving the job to a woman or black presenter.

Cheerily down-to-earth, the 36-year-old didn’t seem right for American chat shows, which are as drearily formulaic as TV gets and – parachuted into the £1.5million-a-year job largely because the CBS head Leslie Moonves loved him when One Man, Two Guvnors played Broadway – Corden certainly has his work cut out.

He wisely opted to make a virtue of his obscurity on his debut show, laying on the humility and British charm with a trowel as he tried to break down as many cherished chat-show traditions as possible.

Striding on stage in a dark suit in front of a whooping crowd – including his parents and wife – he dispensed with the traditional jokey monologue read off an autocue. Instead, he explained who he was.

Training: Corden was put through a chat-show boot camp with the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger

Tom Hanks and James Corden recreate all the actor's movies on The Late Late Show

James Corden and Tom Hanks re-enact Tom's famous roles

‘I feel I should tell you about myself,’ he said, revealing that ‘I’m from a place called High Wycombe in Great Britain, which you almost certainly will never have heard of because most people in Great Britain haven’t heard of it.’

And he added: ‘I really couldn’t be more honoured to be stood here talking to you now – and, believe me, however shocked you are that I am standing here doing this job, you will never be as shocked as I am.’

He seemed genuinely moved that his career has come so far so quickly, even welling up as he introduced his parents, Malcolm and Margaret. But he also had to convince viewers his five-nights-a-week show will be pulling in the big names and worth watching.

Luckily, some of Hollywood’s finest were on hand. A sketch followed in which Simon Cowell and Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne were among the furious stars who didn’t get the Willy-Wonka-style golden ticket to present the show.

In the next sequence, the lucky winner – Corden of course – was put through a chat-show boot camp in which the likes of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Meryl Streep drummed into him how to make Americans laugh, how to look sincere and how to fake amusement at a guest’s story.

However, Corden’s biggest first-night asset was having Tom Hanks as a guest. The famously affable star was game for all his energetic host’s madcap jinks, including a clever, lightning-speed, two-man medley of most of Hank’s films.

But Hanks seemed less at ease sharing the guest sofa with actress Mila Kunis, even when she gave the show a useful scoop by revealing she has married boyfriend Ashton Kutcher. The idea of having guests sit together, in the hope that they will banter with each other and their host, is borrowed from Graham Norton on the BBC. But it is an alien concept on US shows, where celebrities are not accustomed to sharing the limelight.

Good start: Corden kicked off the show by telling the American audience who he is

Corden also dispensed with the chat show host’s desk, instead sitting up close to the guest sofa like an over-attentive marriage counsellor. Kunis looked as if she would rather he had kept his distance.

Did the new format work? Corden may be a talented actor and decent singer (he sang a self-effacing little number at the end of the show), but he is no great interviewer.

His determination to be polite and affable, even gushing, meant the chat was going nowhere until Kunis obligingly provided the wedding scoop. Can he expect such ‘bombshells’ every night of the week?

Still, critics and viewers were generally impressed with his debut, praising the sort of versatility you could never expect of the talk show Old Guard such as David Letterman. Some thought he was a little too jittery and fidgety, and laughing a mite too uproariously at his own jokes – though they put this down to first-night nerves.

As first nights go, this was a winner for Corden,’ said the Hollywood Reporter. ‘If you don’t know James Corden, you really should,’ advised USA Today. It described him as ‘a smart, funny, enormously gifted writer’ who ‘projects humility and a genuine sweetness’.

Trade bible Variety praised some ‘inspired lunacy’ but said there was room for improvement, especially in the handling of the guests.

The revered New York Times’ less positive verdict was headlined ‘Amiable if not particularly special’ adding that Corden’s ‘star power’ isn’t obvious. CBS has brought in a talented support team of writers and producers to back up Corden. But while the first night was packed with stars eager to be part of the hoopla, some wonder how the team will keep up the momentum.

Corden is not lacking in incentives to succeed. CBS has paid a reported £650,000 relocation fee to move him, his wife and their two young children out to Los Angeles.

Now living in an £18,000-a-month four-bedroom home with a pool, one imagines they are in no hurry to return to Belsize Park in overcast North London.

After the show went out yesterday, he told fans on Twitter: ‘Well, so many truly lovely messages about the show tonight. I’m blown away, thank you.’

He has indeed drawn the lucky golden ticket. But he will have to keep working flat out if it isn’t to lose its lustre in the high-stakes world of American television.