James Corden could reportedly be Ellen DeGeneres' 'long-term successor.' Here's why people aren't happy with the choice.
- Twitter users are sharing stories of James Corden after it was reported that he could be a replacement for Ellen DeGeneres if she leaves her show.
- After the writer Louis Peitzman made a sarcastic tweet about the "famously kind" James Corden, users began to share negative experiences they say they had with the British host.
- Others shared stories they said they heard of problematic past behavior by Corden.
- A producer for "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" recently said she's not going anywhere, but that didn't stop people from comparing DeGeneres and Corden.
A British newspaper reported over the weekend that James Corden was "in line" to replace Ellen DeGeneres should she quit her namesake show. The report led some people on Twitter to share stories in which they accused the "Late Late Show" host of behaving in a problematic way, too.
DeGeneres has faced allegations in recent months of being rude and unkind to staff members and people she worked with, and WarnerMedia — the parent company of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" — recently opened an internal investigation into the show's workplace culture.
Though the "Ellen" executive producer Andy Lassner told a fan on Thursday that "nobody is going off the air," The Sun reported on Saturday that Corden appeared to be in contention as a "long-term successor" to DeGeneres.
The story cited an anonymous source at NBC who said Corden "was being eyed for Ellen's job in the long term" before any of the complaints against her "came to light."
The Sun's source described Corden as "a natural fit" for DeGeneres' job.
Twitter users started sharing stories accusing the British talk-show host of acting is a rude or unkind way
After the story about Corden broke, the entertainment writer Louis Peitzman retweeted a link, captioning it "Famously kind James Corden. :)"
Peitzman subsequently clarified that his tweet about Corden was loaded with "very obvious sarcasm" — prompting numerous other users to share unpleasant stories or observations about Corden.
It's impossible to verify the accuracy of the stories from the tweets alone. The stories ranged from disappointing personal experiences with Corden to more serious allegations of the British host attempting to lower late-night writers' salaries, which Corden himself responded to.
The incident involving the WGA, a Hollywood writer's union, appeared to occur in April 2019.
The writer Jack Allison tweeted "for the record" that he attended a Writer's Guild meeting exclusively for writers but Corden "showed up without any of his staffers to advocate for a lower pay grade for late night writers."
After Allison and others accused him of essentially trying to pay new writers a lower rate than the one negotiated by the WGA, Corden defended himself in the replies, saying he only "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."
Corden also said that he meant only to give "new writers opportunity" and that "not one person in the room saw it as anything other than this."
"I would never ever want to pay a writer less than they deserve. Never," Corden wrote. "I love every writer on my show and all I ever wanted from that meeting was to explore whether talented people could get a better opportunity."
Allison replied to the late-night host: "James, you showed up to a guild meeting, as an employer, flanked by your executive producer, to advocate for the show's interest to pay writers less. if you want to give talented young writers a shot, you can pay them the Guild minimum that was negotiated in the MBA."
A Reddit AMA that Corden did last year is also resurfacing
In the replies to Peitzman's tweet, several people referenced an AMA that Corden did in 2019 (along with several producers on his show) that featured users sharing stories of what they said was past problematic behavior.
Top comments on the AMA featured a story from a user claiming to notice Corden being rude to waitstaff in a London restaurant as well as mentions of an anecdote involving Corden ignoring his wife on a plane.
A representative for Corden declined Insider's request for comment.
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