Fourth Late Night guy to hit the ice

Another of America’s late night television hosts tried the Roaring Game and ... hey now ... ended up getting a result.

It was perhaps inevitable that Late Late Night star James Corden would take his CBS cameras to the rink. The rink in question is, of course, the brand new Southern California Curling Center in Vernon. It’s a dedicated curling facility, so that lends itself perfectly to production requirements. And part of the bill was no doubt footed by outfitters Columbia, hot on the heels of their recent partnership announcement with USA Curling.

There’s also the legacy of late night guys doing curling bits. Corden now joins fellow hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon (an NBC Olympics promo) and Andy Richter—okay, he’s a sidekick—in taking a shtick to the ice. 

Jennifer Lopez once “threw” a stone on a 2010 episode of Saturday Night Live, but it wasn’t a real stone—nor on real ice.

Here’s the thing. Yes, the opening minutes were amusing and ridiculous. The stage was then set for a slaughter—Corden’s hapless squad would be facing a USA Curling all-star team recruited from the men’s, women’s, mixed doubles and wheelchair curling disciplines.

But what we saw—two of Corden’s teammates making actual shots, capped off by Corden’s finale himself—really happened.

Take it from Chris Plys, who was one of Team USA stars.

“I had the best time out there,” said Plys. “USA curling has been making a point to bring our Paralympic athletes together with our program athletes, and that has been great.

“I only threw one rock while I was there and my team told me ‘it’s slow, throw it pretty hard’ just so I think they could watch me be the only one to zip one on the piece.”

Plys confirmed that Corden’s “winning” shot was the real deal.

“Yep. He no lie threw one rock, and it was to the eight-foot.”

John Shuster was Team Late Late Night’s coach, and he was astounded at the result.

So are we. Even if it was a one-end affair that we would hesitate to call a game.

Here’s the video.

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C8Qx572hxuo[/embed]