‘Carpool Karaoke’ TV Series Lands At Apple Music

Denise Petski

Updated 26 July 2016 at 3:30 pm

Apple Music and CBS Television Studios have inked an exclusive first-window licensing agreement under which Apple Music will be the global home of the upcoming Carpool Karaoke series. CBS Television Studios and Ben Winston’s production company, Fulwell 73, will produce. James Corden and Winston are creators and executive producers. CBS Studios International and Fulwell 73 had been shopping the series for an international home.

Based on the segment that has become a global viral-video sensation on The Late Late Show With James Corden, the Carpool Karaoke series will consist of 16 episodes. In each episode, celebrities will ride along and sing along with the host (to be announced) as they visit places meaningful to the celebrity, sing tunes from their personal playlists and surprise fans who don’t expect to see big stars belting out tunes one lane over.

Each week, a new episode will become available exclusively to Apple Music subscribers in more than 100 countries. A host for this new series and a premiere date will be announced later, with production slated to begin soon.

“We love music, and Carpool Karaoke celebrates it in a fun and unique way that is a hit with audiences of all ages,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP Internet Software and Services. “It’s a perfect fit for Apple Music — bringing subscribers exclusive access to their favorite artists and celebrities who come along for the ride.”

Carpool Karaoke will continue to be a recurring segment on The Late Late Show. Earlier this month, the series received four Emmy nominations for its first season, including Outstanding Variety Talk Series.

“We couldn’t be more excited to be partnering with Apple Music on this exciting new series of Carpool Karaoke,” said Ben Winston, Executive Producer of The Late Late Show with James Corden, as well as the new Carpool Karaoke series. “The joy of Carpool is both the intimacy it creates, while seeing the love our passengers have for music. Where better to showcase that than with Apple Music.”

Said Scott Koondel, Chief Corporate Content Licensing Officer at CBS Corp. “We’re delighted to bring one of the biggest viral hits, ‘Carpool Karaoke,’ to Apple Music, where our new series will be available on this phenomenally popular subscription service,” stated

The Carpool Karaoke segment is the biggest viral video hit ever on late-night television, with over 830 million views on YouTube since its inception a year ago. The most-watched late-night clip on YouTube is a Carpool Karaoke segment featuring Adele, which has racked up 119 million views in just six months. Carpool Karaoke also has the second- and third most-watched clips in the history of late night with Justin Bieber and One Direction, respectively. Other top stars including Elton John, Jennifer Lopez, Stevie Wonder and Gwen Stefani also have appeared in the segment, as has First Lady Michelle Obama.

Also on Apple’s slate is Planet of the Apps, a reality-competition TV show featuring aspiring app developers, from Propagate Content’s Ben Silverman and Howard Owens and musician-entrepreneur Will.i.am