This annoys me. It's an article in a British newspaper that managed to get someone into a "test" (never to be broadcast) episode of The Late, Late Show with James Corden. Based on one rehearsal, they're eager to declare the whole program as boring and predictable and even though they apparently never spoke with any CBS executive, they suggest the network is worried they made the wrong choice.
It's really not Kosher to be reviewing this at all just as you're not supposed to review a play before it opens…and the criticisms seem strained. Someone of no importance is concerned that American audiences won't be able to understand his British accent. Yeah? Like they couldn't understand Craig Ferguson's Scottish accent the last ten years?
Need I point out that all talk shows start weak and improve? Conan O'Brien would probably be the neatest example but I recall David Letterman's early episodes of Late Night on NBC and before that, his morning show. They all get better. Some don't get much better but they all get better.
The audience for this test show was made up of folks who were paid to be there…not at all uncommon. (Ferguson's producers for a long time had to use paid audience members to keep his bleachers full.) A few are quoted as not liking what they saw…but they're not the real audience. Also, it sounds like the reporter went looking for people who would slam what they'd seen.
I may be writing here in a few weeks that the show is a colossal disappointment and I've canceled my TiVo Season Pass for it. But, jeez. Give the guy a chance. Let him actually start doing his show before you declare it a disaster. If I don't like it, I'll probably just stop watching for a few months and then check back and see what it's become.