we go further, so you can. ( ticking ) >> the november 3 election was the most secure in american history. there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes or changed votes or was in any way compromised. >> yeah, i stand by that. >> the president tweeted after that statement, "the recent statement by chris krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate." do you remember what the president said at the end of that tweet? >> oh, i was terminated? yes. i recall that. ( ticking ) >> we have to do something to make sure that the legacy of

those people in that cargo hold never ever is forgotten. >> for 160 years this muddy stretch of the mobile river, has covered up a crime. in july, 1860, the "clotilda" was towed here, under cover of darkness. imprisoned in its cramped cargo hold, 110 enslaved africans. >> sonar is on. zero pressure. good to drop. >> that's it right there? >> yes. >> oh, you can see it totally clearly. i mean, that's the ship? >> yes. ( ticking ) >> james corden put "the late late show" on the map and made it a must-see stop on youtube when the comedian/song and dance man decided to turn carpooling into this. this is like a cultural phenomenon. >> you're making me feel incredibly british by not being able to look you in the eye during a compliment or any kind

of recognition of success. ( ticking ) >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm anderson cooper. >> i'm norah o'donnell. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories, tonight, on "60 minutes." ( ticking ) earer ♪ ♪ yeah i feel free ♪ to bare my skin, yeah that's all me. ♪ ♪ nothing and me go hand in hand ♪ ♪ nothing on my skin that's my new plan. ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. woman: keep your skin clearer with skyrizi. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. of those, nearly 9 out of 10 sustained it through 1 year. and skyrizi is 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. ♪ i see nothing in a different way ♪ ♪ and it's my moment so i just gotta say ♪ ♪ nothing is everything. skyrizi may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tuberculosis. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms,

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in any state. mr. trump's claim that millions of votes were deleted or switched is denied by the official he chose to secure the nation's election systems. christopher krebs called the 2020 vote "the most secure in american history" which promptly got him fired. tonight, in his first interview since he was dismissed, krebs tells us why he believes the vote was accurate and why saying otherwise puts the country in danger. >> christopher krebs: i have confidence in the security of this election, because i know the work that we've done for four years in support of our state and local partners. i know the work that the intelligence community has done, the department of defense has done, that the fbi has done, that my team has done. i know that these systems are more secure. i know based on what we have seen that any attacks on the election were not successful. >> pelley: two years ago,

president trump put christopher krebs in charge of the new cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency. krebs, a lifelong republican, was confirmed unanimously by the senate. his agency, known by its acronym, "cisa" helps secure computer systems anywhere that a security breech could be catastrophic, nuclear power plants for example, and the election hardware in all 50 states. why are you speaking to us? >> krebs: i'm not a public servant anymore, but i feel i still got some public service left in me. and, you know, it's hard once you take that oath to uphold and defend the constitution from threats foreign and domestic, it's hard to walk away from that. and if i can reinforce or confirm for one person that the vote was secure, the election was secure, then i feel like i've done my job.

>> pelley: krebs, who's 43, worked on cybersecurity in the bush administration, became director of cybersecurity policy at microsoft and joined the trump department of homeland security in 2017. his priority was to stop anyone from repeating russia's 2016 election hacking and disinformation. >> krebs: so, we spent something on the order of three and a half years of gaming out every possible scenario for how a foreign actor could interfere with an election. countless, countless scenarios. >> pelley: so, back in 2017, as you're looking ahead to the election in 2018 and then ultimately the election in 2020, you have a to-do list. and the to-do list includes what? >> krebs: paper ballots. paper ballots give you the ability to audit, to go back and check the tape and make sure

that you got the count right. and that's really one of the keys to success for a secure 2020 election. 95% of the ballots cast in the 2020 election had a paper record associated with it. compared to 2016, about 82%. >> pelley: and with a paper record, you can go back and verify what the machine is saying by physically counting the paper? >> krebs: that gives you the ability to prove that there was no malicious algorithm or hacked software that adjusted the tally of the vote. and just look at what happened in georgia. georgia has machines that tabulate the vote. they then held a hand recount and the outcome was consistent with the machine vote. >> pelley: and that tells you what? >> krebs: that tells you that there was no manipulation of the vote on the machine count side. and so, that pretty thoroughly, in my opinion, debunks some of

these sensational claims out there-- that i've called nonsense and a hoax, that there is some hacking of these election-- vendors and their software and their systems across the country. it's-- it's just-- it's nonsense. >> pelley: before the election, as the president called mail-in ballots a fraud, krebs' team released a report highlighting the safeguards built into mail- in voting. his agency knocked down rumors and exposed an iranian plot to intimidate voters. on election day, krebs assembled a team in his command center to defend the vote. >> krebs: we had the department of defense cyber command. we had the national security agency. we had the f.b.i. we had the secret service. we also had representatives from the election assistance commission, which is the federal independent agency that supports the actual administration of elections.

we had representatives from some of the-- vendors, the election equipment vendors. and they're critical because they're the ones out there that know what's going on on the ground if there's any sort of issue with some of their systems. and we had representatives from state and local governments. >> pelley: how did the day go? >> krebs: it was quiet. and there was no indication or evidence that there was any sort of hacking or compromise of election systems on, before or after november 3. >> stephen: and yet, this was the president november 5. >> president trump: and this is a case where they're trying to steal an election, they're trying to rig an election. >> pelley: nine days after election day, mr. trump tweeted falsely that machines from dominion voting systems deleted millions of votes. krebs couldn't remain silent. his agency and its election security partners answered with a public statement. to quote from the november 12

statement that cisa and its partners put out, "the november 3 election was the most secure in american history. there is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes or changed votes or was in any way compromised." >> krebs: yeah, i stand by that. >> pelley: the president tweeted after that statement, "the recent statement by chris krebs on the security of the 2020 election was highly inaccurate, in that there were massive improprieties and fraud." do you remember what the president said at the end of that tweet? >> krebs: oh, i was terminated? is that-- yes. i recall that. >> pelley: were you surprised? >> krebs: i don't know if i was necessarily surprised. it's not how i wanted to go out. i think i-- the thing that

upsets me the most about that is i didn't get a s-- chance-- to say goodbye to my team. and i'd worked with them for three and a half years, in the trenches. building an agency, putting cisa on the national stage. and i love that team. and i didn't get a chance to say goodbye, so that's what i'm most upset about. >> pelley: since he was fired, about a dozen republican senators have vouched for krebs' work. the president's essentially saying in that tweet that you did a lousy job, that you and your team blew it, and allowed massive fraud, all across the country. >> krebs: we did a good job. we did it right. i'd do it a thousand times over. >> pelley: still, the president's lawyers have filed at least a dozen suits and spun conjecture without evidence. >> rudy giuliani: and you should be more astounded by the fact that our votes are counted in germany and in spain.

>> pelley: as you watched rudy giuliani's news conference at the republican national committee headquarters, what were you thinking? >> krebs: it was upsetting, because what i saw was a apparent attempt to undermine confidence in the election, to confuse people, to scare people. it's not me, it's not just cisa. it's the tens of thousands of election workers out there that had been working nonstop, 18- hour days, for months. they're getting death threats for trying to carry out one of our core democratic institutions: an election. and that was, again, to me, a press conference that i just-- it didn't make sense. what it was actively doing was undermining democracy. and that's dangerous. >> pelley: let me ask for your reaction to some of the vote fraud that the president and his team have been alleging. votes tabulated in foreign

countries. >> krebs: so, all votes in the united states of america are counted in the united states of america. i don't-- i don't understand this claim. all votes in the united states of america are counted in the united states of america. period. >> pelley: voting machines corrupted by mysterious actors in venezuela. >> krebs: so, again, there's no evidence that any machine that i'm aware of has been manipulated by a foreign power. period. >> pelley: communist money from china and cuba used to influence the election. >> krebs: look, i think these-- we can go on and on with all the farcical claims that-- alleging- - interference in the 2020 election, but the proof is in the ballots. the recounts are consistent with the initial count, and to me, that's further evidence, that's confirmation that the systems used in the 2020 election performed as expected, and the

american people should have 100% confidence in their vote. >> pelley: in a news conference, a lawyer who was representing the president at the time, sidney powell, said specifically that the dominion company's voting machines, quote: >> sidney powell: it can set and run an algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from president trump and flip them to president biden. >> krebs: votes were cast in georgia, for instance, again, on paper. they were counted by a machine. they were subsequently recounted by hand. the outcomes of that count were consistent. if there was an algorithm that was flipping votes or changing votes, it didn't work. i think the more likely explanation, though, is that there is no algorithm, that the systems performed as intended, that the series of security controls before, during, and

after an election protected those systems from any sort of misbehavior. >> pelley: most elections are run by each state's secretary of state, but not one of them, democrat or republican, has reported ballot rigging that would change the election. some are paying a price for integrity. >> krebs: and it's, in my view, a travesty, what's happening right now with all these death threats to election officials, to secretaries of state. i want everybody to look at secretary boockvar in pennsylvania, secretary benson in michigan, secretary cegavske in nevada, secretary hobbs in arizona. all strong women that are standing up, that are under attack from all sides, and they're defending democracy. they're doing their jobs. look at-- look at secretary raffensperger in georgia, lifelong republican. he put country before party in his holding a free and fair

election in that state. there are some real heroes out there. there are some real patriots. >> pelley: at the capitol, the stage is going up for inauguration day, january 20. well before that, on december 14, the presidential electors will cast their ballots-- which should settle the election. christopher krebs told us it's ironic that the disruption and disinformation he feared from abroad came, instead, from pennsylvania avenue. the president says you're dead wrong about election security, and to him you say what? >> krebs: there is no foreign power that is flipping votes. there's no domestic actor flipping votes. i did it right. we did it right. this was a secure election. ( ticking ) did you try it yet? comparing plans? oh yeah. they sure can change year to year.

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>> cooper: two years ago, a sunken ship was found in the bottom of an alabama river. it turned out to be the long lost wreck of the "clotilda," the last slave ship known to have brought captured africans to america in 1860. at least 12 million africans were shipped to the americas in the more than 350 years of the trans-atlantic slave trade, but as you'll hear tonight, the journey of the 110 captive men, women, and children brought to alabama on the "clotilda," is one of the best documented slave voyages in history. the names of those enslaved africans, and their story, has been passed down through the generations by their descendants, some of whom still live just a few miles from where the ship was found, in a community called africatown. for 160 years this muddy stretch of the mobile river, has covered up a crime.

in july, 1860, the "clotilda" was towed here, under cover of darkness. imprisoned in its cramped cargo hold, 110 enslaved africans. >> joycelyn davis: i just imagined myself being on that ship, just listening to the waves and the water, and just not knowing where you were going. >> cooper: joyceyln davis, lorna gail woods, and thomas griffin are direct descendants of this african man, oluale. enslaved in alabama, his owner changed his name to charlie lewis. this image is from around 1900. pollee allen, whose african name was kupollee, seen in this hundred year old sketch, was the ancestor of jeremy ellis and darron patterson. >> darron patterson: no clothes. eating where they defecated. only allowed outta the cargo hold for one day a week for two months. how many people do you, do we know now that could've survived something like that, without losing their mind? >> cooper: there are no photographs of pat frazier's great-great grandmother, lottie dennison, but caprinxia wallace

and her mother cassandra have a surprising number of pictures of their ancestor, kossula, who's owner called him cudjo lewis. what does it feel like to be able to know where you come from, to know the person who came here first? >> caprinxia wallace: it's empowering, very. like, growing up, my mom made sure she told me all the stories that her dad told her about cudjo. >> cooper: cassandra, that was important to you to pass that knowledge along? >> cassandra: very important, yes. my dad sat us down and he would make us repeat "kossulu, 'clotilda,' cudjo lewis." >> griffin: it has historical importance, as well as a story that needs to be told. >> cooper: the story of the "clotilda" began in 1860, when timothy meaher, a wealthy businessman, hired captain william foster to illegally smuggle a shipload of captive africans from the kingdom of dahomey, in west africa, to mobile, alabama. slavery was still legal in the

southern united states, but importing new slaves into america had been outlawed in 1808. in his journal, captain foster, described purchasing the captives using "$9,000 in gold and merchandise." as this replica shows, the enslaved africans were locked, naked, in the cargo hold of the "clotilda" for two sickening months. when they arrived in mobile, they were handed over to timothy meaher and several others. captain foster claimed he then burned and sank the clotilda, but exactly where remained a mystery-- until 2018, when a local reporter, ben raines, found the "clotilda" in about 20 feet of water not far from mobile. he'd been searching for seven months, following clues in captain foster's journal. the exact location hasn't been made public for fear someone might vandalize the ship, but last february the alabama historical commission gave maritime archeologist james delgado, who helped verify the

wreck, permission to take us there. so, the "clotilda" came up this way? >> james delgado: straight up here, practically in a straight line after they dropped off the people, and then on one side of the bank, set her on fire and sank her. >> cooper: so, he was trying to destroy evidence of a crime? >> delgado: yes. >> cooper: the bow of the "clotilda" is not far from the surface, but the water's so muddy, the only way to see it is with this sonar device. >> sonar is on. zero pressure. good to drop. >> cooper: so, we're almost over it now? >> delgado: yeah, we're coming right up on it. >> so, that's the bow right there? >> cooper: that's it right there? >> delgado: yes. >> cooper: oh, you can see it like that? >> delgado: yeah. >> cooper: you can see it totally clearly. i mean, that's the ship? >> delgado: yes. yeah, that's "clotilda." >> cooper: on sonar the bow is clearly defined, as are both sides of the hull. the ship is 86 feet long, but the back of it, the stern, is buried deep in mud. those two horizontal lines are likely the walls of the cargo hold where the enslaved africans

had been packed tightly together on the voyage from west africa. so, the hold where people were held, how big was that? >> delgado: in terms of where people could actually fit, five feet by about 20 feet. >> cooper: wait a minute. it was only five feet high? so people could barely stand up in this hold? >> delgado: yes. >> cooper: diving on the wreck is difficult. underwater there is zero visibility. you can't even see the ship. delgado's team has only felt it with their hands. they call it "archeology by braille." this is the only image our camera could pick up: a plank of wood covered with what looks like barnacles. delgado, and state archeologist stacye hathorn, showed us some of the artifacts they retrieved. this plank of wood is likely from the hull of the ship. and this iron bolt, with wood attached, shows evidence of fire damage. >> stacye hathorn: you don't see the grain of the wood. >> delgado: it basically makes a briquette. >> cooper: so, this is evidence clearly of, that they tried to burn the ship? >> hathorn: yes. >> delgado: yes.

>> cooper: the enslaved africans were taken off the ship before it sank, but delgado says there could still be d.n.a. from some of them in the wreck. >> delgado: you will find human hair. you can find nail clippings. somebody may have lost a tooth. >> cooper: you could still find human hair in the wreck of the "clotilda?" >> delgado: yes. >> cooper: the state of alabama has set aside a million dollars for further excavation to determine if the "clotilda" can ever be raised from the riverbed. the ship may be too damaged or the effort too expensive. >> mary elliott: i think what's extremely important for folks to understand is that, that there was a concerted effort to hide these things that were done. >> cooper: mary elliott oversees the collection of slavery artifacts at the smithsonian's national museum of african american history and culture in washington, d.c. >> elliott: it's important that we found the remnants of this ship, because it, for african americans, it's their piece of the true cross, their touchstone to say, "we've been telling you for years. and here's the proof."

>> cooper: remarkably, many of the descendants still live just a few miles from where the "clotilda" was discovered. this is africatown. founded around 1868, three years after emancipation, by 30 of the africans brought on the "clotilda." joycelyn davis has organized festivals to honor africatown's founders, one of whom was her great-great-great-grandfather, charlie lewis. last february she took us to the street he lived on, called lewis quarters. so, pretty much everyone on this street can trace their lineage back to charlie lewis-- >> davis: yes. everyone here is related. >> cooper: wow. >> davis: yeah. >> cooper: lewis and some of the others got jobs at a nearby sawmill, owned by timothy meaher, the same man responsible for enslaving them. >> davis: i mean, they worked for, like, a dollar a day. and so, they saved up their money to buy land. >> cooper: cudjo lewis also worked at the meaher's sawmill. this rare film shows him in 1928. by then he was in his 80's and

one of the "clotilda's" last living survivors. he helped found this church in africatown, the same church his descendants still attend today. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ after emancipation it seemed so unlikely that a group of freed slaves could pool their resources and build a community. i mean, that's an extraordinary thing. >> elliott: there's this thing we say about making a way out of no way. >> cooper: making a way out of no way? >> elliott: when these folks were forced over here from the continent of africa they didn't come with empty heads. they came with empty hands. so, they found a way to make a way. and they relied on each other. and they were resilient. >> cooper: africatown is the only surviving community in america founded by africans, and over the decades it prospered. there was a business district. the first black school in mobile and, by the 1960s, 12,000 people lived here.

>> lorna: they built a city within a city. and that's what we can be proud of. >> cassandra: we had a gas station. we had a grocery store. >> patterson: drive in. >> cassandra: post office, all that was a booming area of black-owned business. >> cooper: but today those black owned businesses are gone. an interstate highway was built through the middle of africatown in the early 1990s, and the small clusters of remaining homes are surrounded by factories and chemical plants. fewer than 2,000 people still live here. the smithsonian's mary elliott took us to africatown's cemetery, where some of the "clotilda's" survivors and generations of their descendants are buried. no matter where you go in africatown, you can hear factories and industry and the highway. >> elliott: there is this constant buzz. it's a buzz you hear all the time, day and night. and it's a constant reminder of the breakup of this community.

>> cooper: the descendants we spoke with hope the discovery of the "clotilda" will lead to the revitalization of africatown, and they'd like the descendants of timothy meaher, the man who enslaved their ancestors, to get involved. according to tax records, meaher's descendants still own an estimated 14% of the land in historic africatown, their name is on nearby street signs and property markers. court filings indicate their real estate and timber businesses are worth an estimated $36 million. but, so far, the descendants we spoke with say no one from the meaher family has been willing to meet. >> patterson: i don't think it's something that people want to remember. >> wallace: because they have to acknowledge that they benefit from it today. >> that they benefited, that's it. that they benefited. and they don't want to acknowledge that. >> cooper: people don't want to look back and acknowledge it. >> they don't want to acknowledge that that's how part of their wealth was derived. >> patterson: big part. >> and that, on the backs of those people. >> cooper: what would you want to say to them? i mean, if-- if they were willing to sit down and have,

you know, have a coffee with you? >> we would first need to acknowledge what was done in the past. and then there's an accountability piece, that your family, for this many years, five years, owned my ancestors. and then the third piece would be, how do we partner together with, in africatown? >> i don't want to receive anything personally. however, there's a need for a lot of development in that community. >> cooper: we reached out to four members of the meaher family, all either declined or didn't respond to our request for an interview. one man who did want to meet the descendants, is mike foster. he's a 73-year-old air force veteran from montana. while researching his genealogy last year, mike foster discovered he is the distant cousin of william foster, the captain of the "clotilda." had you heard of the last slave ship? >> william foster: no. no. >> cooper: what did you think when you heard it? >> foster: i wasn't happy about

it. it was, it was very distressing. >> cooper: do you feel some guilt? >> foster: no, i didn't feel any guilt. i didn't do it. but i could apologize for it. >> cooper: and last february, before the pandemic, that's exactly what he did. >> lorna: yeah, over 160 years have passed, and we finally-- >> foster: 160 years. >> lorna: yes. >> davis: this is a powerful moment. this is a powerful moment. >> foster: so, i'm here to say i'm sorry. >> lorna: thank you. >> thank you. >> cooper: in an effort to attract tourism to africatown, the state of alabama plans to build a welcome center here, but the descendants we spoke with hope more can be done to restore and rebuild this historic black community, and honor the african men and women who founded it. >> so, i always think, my god, such strong people, so capable, achieved so much, and started

with so little. >> patterson: we have to do something to make sure that the legacy of those people in that cargo hold never ever is forgotten. bcause they are the reason that were even here. ( ticking ) >> cbs sports hq prpted by progressive surance. i'm james brown with the score. raiders turned the ball over five times in a blowout loss. 460 yards in the air. new orleans with their 8th w. and a road win over the lowly jets. titans had no problem with the colts. titans had no problem with the colts. for 277 news go it kx+*bs news hq.com. what i do is help new homeowners overcome this.

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up past 12:30 a.m., then maybe you're one of the hundreds of millions who have caught corden on his youtube channel. taking a talk show stuck in an after hours time-slot, and making it available online around the globe. with charm and wit, corden gets a-list stars to open up in a way that seems to surprise them as much as us. amazing for someone who was virtually unknown in the u.s. when he moved here six years ago. but james corden will tell you he had already put in his 10,000 hours- a deft physical actor, who, by his late 20s, had achieved success and fame in britain. corden says he's on a lifelong quest for happiness, and he'll do almost anything to move the needle on his audience's happy scale. james, we are ready if you are ready. >> james corden: i'm ready. yes, are you ready? >> whitaker: i am-- i think i'm ready. eight feet away and right on cue. >> corden: can i be honest, bill?

i wrote an email. and i was saying, "what should i wear? should i just wear a suit?" and they said, "no." they said, "bill won't be wearing a suit." ( laughs ) >> whitaker: oh, no. but i read that you're kind of a fashion person. i said, "well, i guess i should- - up my game a little bit." >> corden: well-- and i have to say it's not gone unnoticed. you've matched the-- ( laughs ) socks to the suit. that's-- >> whitaker: beyond... >> corden: --important to have a well-dressed ankle. that's what i think. yeah. >> whitaker: we spoke with james corden at the fabled sunset tower hotel in west hollywood, a stone's throw from another iconic institution: cbs television city, where for five and a half years, he's clocked- in at 9:00 a.m., four days a week, to take on the serious business of delivering a show each night- now taping under strict covid-19 protocols. how has it changed your show? how has it changed what you do? >> corden: well, i think it's-- its changed everything in a sense, you know, we like to think of it as being about scale, about size and getting

out of the studio and running out into the road and shootin' big sketches, big numbers, big ambition. and obviously those things are very difficult at this moment. >> whitaker: with no audience and fewer guests on the couch, corden's more than made do, first doing the show from his garage and now back in the studio, easily riffing with his band. and, on this occasion, this reporter, to witness the process, warts and all. >> corden: american is great again, isn't it? that won't be in the show! bill, give me a break! >> whitaker: corden thinks everything they do now is looser, and he puts a premium on calling it as it is. >> corden: ♪ maybe i'm immune it's okay to go out for a ride ♪ ♪ with others trapped inside i will say, that as time's gone on, as we've been living under

this administration, i don't even consider it to be politics. i consider it to be right and wrong. i consider it to be good versus evil. ( laughs ) we are more than comfortable talking about anything. we also feel like we're an entertainment show. our primary concern is to just try and make you laugh somehow. that's really what we love to do. and-- i'll really stop at nothing to try. ( laughs ) it may not always work. ( laughs ) but i'll give it my best shot, you know. >> whitaker: corden burst onto the late night landscape, not to rip up the notion of the talk show, but to make one that would travel on the internet. add to that, much of the show's success is rooted in corden's nature. >> corden: so, hang on, am i moving into your house? >> whitaker: an affable, droll

brit, who's appeal draws megastars, and who each night hosts more of a cocktail party than a late show. ♪ these are a few of my favorite things ♪ and then there's what corden modestly calls their digital outreach-- highly produced segments designed more to break the internet, than travel through it. >> go, go, go! >> whitaker: tell me about some of the sketches that have caught on. "spill your guts." >> corden: "spill your guts or fill your guts." yeah, there is a common thread in all of these, and all of these are about showing the human being inside this very, very famous person. that's actually what it is. ♪ ♪ >> whitaker: nowhere is it truer than in the front seat of james corden's range rover.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ a few years ago, you would have been forgiven for not knowing what "carpool karaoke" is. today you have no excuse. >> corden: "carpool karaoke." the core of it really isn't the songs. the core of it is the intimacy of the interview, that these are some of the most famous people on planet earth. you know, the-- the-- the biggest singers in the world and they're in an-- environment which is completely humanizing. this traffic has been terrible, i really appreciate it. >> i got ya. >> whitaker: james corden turned a guileless invitation to drive around los angeles into something he hangs the show on. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ each carpool is a viral "sure- bet." ♪ enough is enough is enough >> whitaker: sometimes taking an

entire day to produce and often outpacing his tv audience by 100 million views. notable, because at first, nobody wated to do it. it was hard to get them to get in your car? >> corden: hard, are you're joking? of course it was. imagine getting that call. ( laughs ) you're, like, adele's publicist. like, "yeah, so it's a host whose show is completely unproven. they've never hosted a show before. we'd love you to just get in a car and drive around and sing your songs. and we're not really sure about the insurance on this one." you know, it was crazy. i mean, we managed to get mariah carey-- and i will always be indebted to her for saying yes. so, i genuinely, honestly don't know if we're have this conversation if she hadn't said yes. i think it's that important to our show. >> whitaker: do you have a favorite? >> corden: well, there's-- there's so many. i mean, the, the-- doing it with paul mccartney will probably take some beating from me personally.

it was just a-- just-- a day i'll never, ever forget. >> whitaker: what sticks out in your mind about that day? >> corden: all of it. ♪ penny lane sometimes i think, if that was an auction prize what would it go for, you know? and i'm at work. what? >> whitaker: and like so many other segments, corden's carpool with the beatle has brought a smile and a song to more than 56 million people who've watched it online. >> corden: they'll never believe that. it's really the-- the bedrock of-- of what our show is built on. but i think when the show started we were in-- i don't know-- eight or ten countries. and i think now we're in over 100 countries. it's utterly bemusing to me how far that reaches. >> whitaker: this is like a cultural phenomenon. >> corden: i just-- yeah, i-- i-

- i'm-- i'm-- i'm-- ( laughs ) you're making me feel incredibly british by-- not being able to even look you in the eye-- during a compliment or any kind of recognition of success. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: corden grew up an hour outside of london. the only son of working class parents, his mother was a social worker and his father, a musician and bible salesman. corden was scarcely interested in academics-- drama class being the exception. >> corden: i got a b in drama and a c in home economics, which i think is clear to you that those are the only-- if you look at me now, those are really t-- ( laughter ) two things i took a primary interest in, which is performing and eating. ( laughs ) >> whitaker: you talk about-- often, about the-- the struggle you have had with eating and with your weight. >> corden: yeah. >> whitaker: and you were bullied because of-- of your weight in school. >> corden: i don't look back at my time at school that-- that i

was bullied because of my size. in truth that's probably where all of that faux confidence comes from. it was all a defense mechanism of, like, well, i'll be the biggest target in the room. bullies don't like that. bullies-- confidence is, like, kryptonite to bullies. >> whitaker: james corden's confidence was equal to his ambition. at 17 he found his calling and his voice, albeit, with just one line in a musical in london's west end. he was a working actor for much of his 20s, but big lead roles were elusive, so he decided to write the part for himself, co- creating and starring in one of the u.k.'s most popular tv comedies, "gavin and stacey." it won him awards and made him famous in the u.k. at 34, corden married julia carey. they're now raising three children in los angeles, because

hollywood came calling after his performance on broadway in the slapstick "one man, two guvnors." it won him a tony award for best actor and grabbed the attention of american critics and television executives alike. >> corden: it was glorious. doing that show and playing that role. and-- and i can really chart sort of everything that's happened in my professional life as everything before that play and everything that happened after that play. >> whitaker: and there's a lot to consider, the latest is a glitzy musical adapted from broadway about four washed-up theatre actors attempting a comeback through celebrity activism. >> corden: you'll become celebrity activists! >> whitaker: "the prom" premieres on netflix december 11. with big numbers and spectacular sets, the film shows-off corden's talents for what he calls his "other career," a deep love of acting and performing. so many of your fans have never

seen you do the song-and-dance routine. >> corden: you know, when i took the job as the host of "the late late show," lots of people told me, "oh, y-- that's it. you'll never act again." so, really, i was so keen to prove them wrong, that there was a world in which i could do this. and i guess this is a test for that. >> whitaker: the movie features corden, alongside andrew rannels and oscar winners, nicole kidman and the marvelous meryl streep. we spoke with her remotely. so, what did you think when you found out james corden was going to be a co-star in your film? >> meryl streep: well, i was-- i was thrilled. i think he's one of the most preternaturally talented actors, writers, improvisers, musicians. he's-- he's a quadruple, quintuple threat. so, it's-- it's fun to work with him. it's fun to be with him. >> whitaker: how is it that he gets such a wide array of people, in-- including people

like you, to-- to go along with some of the crazy stuff he does on his show? >> streep: well, he-- you know you're in safe hands, i think. i don't-- i-- he's not going to push you over a cliff. it's like great-- great directors-- you feel safe with them. and i think-- james h-- you s-- you trust that he's-- he's got this in hand. yeah. >> whitaker: at 42, it's a good bet james corden will continue to surprise, delight and evolve before our eyes. with a sage understanding of his fickle industry, corden delights in his success, but doesn't take any of it for granted. >> corden: i think my job is to care about the show-- to-- to a ridiculous amount, the beat of it, the tone of it. until the moment i start hosting it. and then my job is to just only be on a quest for fun.

a lifelong, up at dawn, pride- swallowing siege for fun. >> whitaker: i love that. >> corden: that's all it's about, isn't it? that's what everything's about. ( ticking ) >> hear more from james gordon. >> what are you optimistic about right now? >> 90% of everything. >> at 60minutesovertime.com. when i was in high school, this was the theater i came to quite often. ♪ the support we've had over the last few months has been amazing. i have a soft spot for local places. it's not just a work environment. everyone here is family. gonna go ahead and support him, get my hair cut, leave a big tip. if we focus on our local communities, we can find a way to get through this together.

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>> james we are ready if you ready. >> i am ready. >> are you ready? >> i think i am ready. >> i wrote an e-mail saying what should i wear? should i just wear a suit? i may say no. >> but if you going to wear a suit. >> nonetheless, but i read you are kind of a fashion person. >> i said i have to up my game a little bit. >> i have to say it has not gone unnoticed. >> you matched your socks to the suit. that is -- >> that is beyond. >> it is important to have a well dressed ankle. >> that's what i think. >> and he ended the evening where it began. >> never, ever again would i wear such a bland sock. >> they are pretty bland. >> black socks. i am telling you, i am telling

you. >> some people say hello. >> hey, how are you doing? captioning funded by cbs and ford.