Late-night bits take on a life of their own
‘Carpool Karaoke’ could be headed to a stand-alone series
James Corden may be hitching a ride on the newest late-night trend.
The Late Late Show host is shopping around a spinoff series of his popular “Carpool Karaoke” segment, in which the likes of Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey have hopped in his car and crooned tunes from their own and others’ catalogs. Combined, the viral clips have notched more than 500 million views on YouTube, spawning a “greatest hits” TV special, which aired last week, and the mostwatched late-night YouTube clip ever: his singalong with Adele, which has tallied 93 million views since January.
If picked up by a cable or streaming outlet with a new host, “Carpool” would become the third late-night bit to be spun off into its own show, joining Spike’s Lip Sync Battle (which started on
Late Night With Jimmy Fallon in
2013) and ABC’s upcoming Big
Fan (an expansion of game show
“Who Knows?” from Jimmy Kim
mel Live).
It’s no wonder networks see after-hours programming as a breeding ground for new ideas. Says David Goldberg, an executive producer with Kimmel on
Big Fan: “Some of the smartest and funniest material on television is on late-night, so it made sense to see if we could adapt some of these bits into longerform shows.”
Big Fan, which premieres later this year, originated in a 2014
Kimmel segment that pitted Katy Perry against a “superfan” to see who could answer more questions about the pop star’s life. The half-hour incarnation will be hosted by Andy Richter, with three fans competing against one another. Each week’s celebrity guest will face off against the most successful contestant in the final round.
While Kimmel’s role is behind the scenes, Kim Kardashian already has signed on for an episode. Other famous faces include singers, actors and athletes, whose established fan bases are part of the appeal: “They bring an existing brand. It’s known and quantifiable,” Goldberg says. “The celebrities appearing have very big social exposure. You’re starting from Step 1 with tremendous awareness, and the success is exponential.”
The spinoffs also are multiplatform, playing well on both TV and the Web. Lip Sync Battle, which NBC turned down before it went to Spike, drew its biggest audience yet with January’s Season 2 premiere, which starred Channing Tatum and his wife, Jenna Dewan Tatum, with appearances by Beyoncé and Paula Abdul. The episode pulled in 4.7 million viewers after threeday delayed viewing, according to Nielsen, as well as 85,000 tweets that night and more than 30 million YouTube views.
“The audience has an expectation to see it on digital and be able to get it when they want to, but everybody is driven by the clips we release the week of the show to want to see it on (TV),” Spike president Kevin Kay says. “In a lot of ways, they’re complementary.”
But as more celebrity-driven segments become stand-alone series, they could run the risk of oversaturation.
“How long will ‘Lip Sync’ remain an interesting segment on
Fallon if you’re getting full episodes on Spike?” says Dave Campanelli, director of national TV at Horizon Media. “So far, these things have been home runs for the networks. If a concept does burn out, it will drive the shows to create more. Everyone involved sees these as positives.”