The Late Late Show has responded to rumours that One Direction would be reuniting for an appearance on the final episode of James Corden’s tenure as host.
After eight years, Corden will step down from hosting the CBS talk show on 27 April.
Celebrities such as Adele, Tom Cruise, Mila Kunis and Ben Affleck are set to appear on the show in its final weeks – with some fans jumping to conclusions when it came to One Direction.
Eager One Direction fans noticed corresponding gaps in the schedules of the boyband’s former members – Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson.
And – as One Direction have appeared on the show on three occasions – some people jumped to the conclusion that the five-piece would be making a comeback.
But the programme’s official Twitter account has now officially debunked the rumours.
Nobody loves the boys more than us … but this story just isn’t true.
— The Late Late Show with James Corden (@latelateshow) April 13, 2023
What is true is we’ve got an absolutely brilliant 2 hour finale planned to celebrate 8 years of #LateLateShow at 10pm on April 27th. pic.twitter.com/Vyj75eB5qz
“Nobody loves the boys more than us … but this story just isn’t true,” it reads.
“What is true is we’ve got an absolutely brilliant two-hour finale planned to celebrate eight years of #LateLateShow at 10pm on April 27th.”
Celebrity gossip site DeuxMoi was among the sites to first run the rumours of a reconciliation.
It revealed that Tomlinson, 31, is now free as a bird for the final show after cancelling his tour in Asia last week due to “unforeseen circumstances”.
Grammy Award-winning Styles, 29, is not due to return to his tour until May, which would leave him available for the show.
Malik, who recently returned to social media, doesn’t appear to have any commitments around that time.
Meanwhile Payne, 29, has no known bookings until Soccer Aid in June and Horan, 29, has no shows lined up until May.
One Direction originally shot to fame in 2010 after being put together by Simon Cowell on TV talent show The X Factor.
Malik quit the band in 2015. Just five months later the rest of the group announced that they were going on hiatus and have been concentrating on solo projects ever since.
