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| James Corden has been hired to replace Craig Ferguson as host of "The Late Late Show" |
Four months ago, when David Letterman first announced that
he was retiring from The Late Show,
Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post
wrote a satirical piece
recommending to CBS who their next hire should be: “A
white guy named Jimmy. There are two places that Jimmys belong: on ice cream
cones, and behind the desks of late-night shows.” While CBS tapped Stephen Colbert to replace
Letterman, it was yet another straight, white guy named Jimmy to whom they
turned to fill Craig Ferguson’s chair at The
Late Late Show, British comedian and actor James Corden.
Look, I like Corden.
I haven’t seen a great deal of his work, but he plays one of my favorite
recurring Doctor Who characters,
Craig, and he was positively fantastic in Hulu’s The Wrong Mans, which he also co-wrote. Corden also has a Tony Award for his lead
role in One Man, Two Guvnors and is
portraying The Baker in the forthcoming film adaptation of Into the Woods. This is a
long-winded way of saying that the man has chops. He’s a good actor with a sharp, well-honed
comedic voice and I’m sure he’ll be great as host of The Late Late Show.
Despite my confidence, however, after the
announcement came through Tuesday morning I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of
regret that yet another late night hosting gig was going to yet another straight,
white man. A number of smarter, more
eloquent writers than I am wrote a number of smarter, more eloquent pieces on
this exact subject when Letterman announced his retirement. I’m not going to try to duplicate their work
or go into the myriad people who would be qualified to host a late night show. Instead, I would like to talk
about why I, as a straight, white man want to see somebody other than a
straight, white man host a major network late-night show.
I’ve slowly been coming to the realization that
about ninety percent of current pop culture is targeted directly at me, a white
male in his mid-thirties. I mean this
not only in the sense that so many films are trying to trade on my nostalgia
(comic book movies, Transformers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, hell even Boyhood, etc.) or on the feelings and
emotions men of my age are experiencing as we get married, have children, and
try to figure out this thing called “adulthood,” but also in the sense that the
vast majority of filmmakers today are white men in their thirties and forties. Movies are being directed at me and men like
me because men like me are making them.
The turning point for me came this week as I sat
down and looked at the people behind this year’s summer blockbusters. Of the fourteen blockbuster films* released
since April, all of them were directed by men and eleven were written solely by
men. Even worse, the only movie whose
principal screenwriter was a woman, Maleficent,
was widely criticized for its male director’s bumbling of what could have been an incredibly emotional and
important feminist story. Should it really be surprising that I’ve
enjoyed so many movies this summer when they’re all written by and for people
exactly like me?
*
For these purposes “blockbusters” refers to any film that has earned or spent
more than $100,000,000.
What makes film’s single-mindedness so frustrating
is that television has made such great strides in recent years to introduce
diverse viewpoints. Don’t get me wrong,
much of television is still very white and very male (especially in front of
the camera), but I look at shows like 30
Rock, Orange Is the New Black, Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, Girls, Key &
Peele, Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer, Trophy Wife, The Mindy Project and
others and I see a wonderfully diverse group of
storytellers. And it’s not just
diversity for diversity’s sake. I would
argue that in recent years television has surpassed film as the preeminent
storytelling medium in large part because the proliferation of cable channels
and their insatiable hunger for original programming has led to ever-increasing
amounts of content – content that is exploring new forms, themes, and
viewpoints.
Furthermore, not only is diversity in storytelling being
encouraged in television (at least to a certain level), but its absence is becoming
increasingly notable and lamented. When Saturday Night Live debuted its 2013-14
season with six new white cast members (including five new white men) the
criticism came almost immediately, not because the show needed women of color, but because the show was obviously,
demonstrably worse for its inability to tell stories involving African-American
women – a drawback it later tried to lampoon when Scandal star Kerry Washington hosted.
In January, SNL
hired Sasheer Zamata to join the cast but, perhaps more importantly, hired LaKendra
Tookes and Leslie Jones as writers. While
Zamata’s hiring made the most noise, it was Jones’s “Weekend Update” lament on
the current state of her love life compared to her theoretical prospects under
slavery that had the most lasting impact (“I’m six-feet tall and I’m strong…I
would be the number one slave draft pick”). [The following embedded video may or may not work. If it doesn't, you can view it here.]
What is notable about this bit is not that it’s
funny, which it is, but the awkwardness and uncomfortability of its humor. You can almost feel the spine tingles of the
(almost exclusively white) audience as it nervously laughs at Jones’s jokes. It’s a difficult piece for the audience
because it’s so unexpected, coming from a voice previously unheard from on recent years' Saturday Night Live. This
is diversity at its most potent: challenging the audience to see things from a
different perspective, to feel what it’s like when a program isn’t speaking
directly to you.
This challenging spirit would be perfect for The Late Late Show which, through the
Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, and Craig Ferguson years, has never really managed
to compete ratings-wise with NBC’s Late
Night with Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, and now Seth Meyers. In fact, The
Late Late Show has always been keen on experimentation: First with Kilborn,
whose The Daily Show was not nearly
the phenomenon it turned into under Jon Stewart, and later with Craig Ferguson
who eschewed many of the trappings of traditional late night television
including the comedic sidekick, the house band, the scripted, long-form
monologue, and the whole “being American” thing. Furthermore, Ferguson’s Late Late Show has been consistently struggling in the ratings,
regularly drawing A18-49 ratings between 0.2 and 0.4 (compared to Late Nights 0.5 to 0.6). The risks posed by taking a chance on a
non-white male host are basically nil. Even
if he or she tanks, it wouldn’t take that much to build back to where the show
was.
It’s not surprising that CBS decided to replace straight,
white man David Letterman with straight, white man Stephen Colbert, nor is it
surprising that they decided to replace straight, white man Craig Ferguson with
straight, white man James Corden. But it’s
disappointing because The Late Late Show
is the lowest-rated of the late night shows (meaning there’s less risk with
taking chances) and it’s the series with the most history of taking
chances. Instead of trying something new,
though, CBS is replacing a straight, white Scotsman with a straight, white
Englishman, barely even bothering to change their host’s nationality.
Late night television doesn’t need a non-straight,
white male host to show that it’s progressive or “keeping up with the times.” It needs a woman, or a person of color, or a
gay person to introduce a new viewpoint to the medium. Television has made its critical bones in the
last decade by featuring creative talent that doesn’t conform to the
conventional norm. Network late night
shows are the last domain reserved solely for straight, white men; and it’s time for the reign of the Jimmy to end.
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