With less than a week to go before his big American TV debut, James Corden has spoken of his excitement and nervousness ahead of hosting ‘The Late Late Show’ for the first time.

The British actor, 36, spoke to People magazine ahead of next Monday’s (March 23rd) edition of the nightly CBS talk show. The successful Broadway Tony winner was selected to replace fellow Brit Craig Ferguson when the latter announced his departure back in 2014.

James Corden
James Corden makes his 'Late Late Show' debut next week on CBS

“I feel like I'm a teddy bear in one of those grabber machines at the fair and I'm surrounded by more impressive teddies but for some reason it's grabbed me even though it was going for another,” he said when asked about his transatlantic move. “I'm the one going, 'Okay, this will be your life for a bit.'”

Apparently, he’s been taking every possibly opportunity to prepare for his duties as host on the prestigious show. “Every time I get in an Uber [taxi], I'm treating the driver as though they're a big guest: 'So, where are you from? What sort of music do you like?'” he says.

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“I'm just bombarding them with questions because that is really the only place I've got to do it. Or to our cleaner: 'So, you always mop left to right?' Any opportunity, really.” A big star in his native Britain but relatively unknown in America, ‘The Late Late Show’ is a significant gamble for him.

He’s also uprooting his wife Julia and his two children, four year old son Max and five month old daughter Carey, in order to make the move to America. With the combination of nerves and a newborn in the house, Corden admits there’s been some “sleepless nights” in their household.

“I have no idea how I'll do,” Corden says about his new job. “But it is not lost on me what a privilege this is. And I think I'm going to love it. I think I'm going to absolutely love it.”

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