Hosting a World Cup show with Rio Ferdinand

James Corden is heading back to late night American TV – if only temporarily.

The comic will be hosting a show about each day’s action at the World Cup with ex-England captain Rio Ferdinand and comedian Ian Karmel, formerly co-head writer on Corden’s Late Late Show.

The hour-long show launches on Fox on June 11, the day of the opening match between Mexico and South Africa, and will run for the six weeks of the tournament.

Its full title is the FIFA World Cup 2026™ After Hours On Fox With James Corden,‘which we can all agree rolls off the tongue,’ the Gavin & Stacey star said sarcastically.

At a launch event in New York he also had to correct himself by calling the sport ‘football’ – saying: ‘I know for a fact that our bosses are very adamant that I call it soccer.’

Explaining the show, he  said: ‘It’s going to be me, former England soccer captain Rio Ferdinand and one of my favourite comedians on planet Earth, Ian Karmel.

‘Every night after the games we are going to be trying to have a light-hearted look at the World Cup, talking about the games, about what may have happened that day.

‘What we're going to try to do is make it feel like if you couldn't meet up with your friends in a bar that night we'll be there to have some fun.’

Corden also spoke about his love of football – sorry, ‘soccer’ – especially  West Ham United, whose relegation fight suffered a setback on Sunday with a disallowed goal against Arsenal.  The graphics for the show even depict him as a table football figure in the club’s strip:

 ‘Soccer is a massive part of my life,’ he said. ‘In the eight and a half years that I lived in Los Angeles, I would go and watch Galaxy games with Zlatan Ibrahimović  when he was playing, and I saw the rise of LA. It really feels like now is an incredible time for North America to be hosting this tournament and we're going to really try and have some fun.’ 

Asked why he wanted work for Fox, Corden said bluntly: ‘Because they got the rights to the games. I can’t stress this enough, if they didn’t have the rights to the games, I’d do this show on the network that did.’

Brad Zager, president of Fox Sports said: ‘We couldn’t be more excited to welcome James, Rio and Ian to the FOX Sports family for what promises to be an unforgettable summer. The show is the perfect addition to our programming line-up and we’re looking forward to capping off the day on Fox in a way that only James and his team can deliver for fans.’

It has been estimated that the World Cup will generate $850 million (£630million)  in advertising revenue for Fox Sports and Spanish-language channel Telemundo in the US.

Corden hosted The Late Late Show on CBS from 2015 to 2023. He is currently also working with  Gavin & Stacey co-creator Ruth Jones on a show for Apple TV called The Choir, in which they play estranged siblings brought back together when the brother comes back to the small town where they grew up.

Published: 12 May 2026