James Corden was announced as the new host on September 8, 2014, succeeding Craig Ferguson, and the premiere was originally scheduled for March 9, 2015, but CBS pushed it back to March 23, 2015, so the NCAA basketball tournament could be used to promote his debut.

Corden made a surprise guest appearance on Craig Ferguson's show on December 16, 2014, two days before Ferguson's final broadcast, where they briefly discussed the handover, and Corden also job-shadowed on an episode hosted by Judd Apatow to 'learn from his mistakes'.

The show's house band was originally nicknamed 'Karen' but was renamed 'Melissa' in response to the negative slang usage of the name Karen.

The title sequence was originally supposed to be directed by J. J. Abrams, but since he was busy filming a blockbuster, the visual firm Trollbäck + Company took over and shot the entire sequence—featuring Corden and bandleader Reggie Watts riding a lowrider and LED bikes around Los Angeles—in a single night.

The show's interview format was inspired by the British talk show The Graham Norton Show, with all guests appearing together, entering through the audience rather than from backstage, and the host seated to the left of the guests instead of behind a desk.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Corden hosted the show from inside his garage via Zoom starting March 30, 2020, and later resumed hosting from his home again in September 2020 after being exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19, even while his band and crew kept filming from the studio.

The May 20, 2015 episode, aired right after the finale of Late Show with David Letterman, became the highest-rated episode in the franchise's history with 4 million viewers, featuring Corden and Sting singing 'Every Breath You Take' outside the Ed Sullivan Theater.

The Carpool Karaoke segment was inspired by a 2011 Comic Relief sketch in which Corden, in character from Gavin & Stacey, sang along with George Michael in a car, an idea he developed with producer Ben Winston into the concept of driving through Los Angeles traffic.

A Carpool Karaoke segment featuring Adele reached 42 million views within five days, making it the most viral video from a late-night program since 2013, and has since surpassed 263 million views.

In January 2020, a viral Twitter video claimed to show that Corden did not actually drive the car during Carpool Karaoke segments, revealing it was sometimes towed on a trailer during stunts; a producer and later Corden himself addressed the claims on the show.

The 'Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts' segment faced backlash in June 2021 after activist Kim Saira criticized the show for using traditional Asian foods as 'disgusting' props, sparking a Change.org petition that gathered over 10,000 signatures.

The series finale on April 27, 2023 brought together fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, plus David Letterman and former Daily Show host Trevor Noah.