James Corden to change ‘spill your guts’ show segment after it was branded ‘racist’ by online petition

James Corden is adjusting a segment on his show after an online petition branded it “racist”.

The Late Late Show host is adjusting the ‘spill your guts’ segment – which sees celebrities forced to choose between answering a tough question about their personal lives or eat something ‘unusual’ – after the petition garnered 45,000 signatures.

The petition was started by TikTok user Kim Saira. She said food Corden used, like chicken feet, are not “disgusting” foods and are “regularly eaten by Asian people”.

She wrote: “The foods that are presented are meant to be ‘gross,’ as they are supposed to encourage the guest to answer his questions instead. However, many of the foods that he presents to his guests are actually from different Asian cultures.”

She called on the presenter to “completely change the food presented on his show to something else, or remove the segment entirely,” to apologise for the segment and to donate to local Asian American organisations.

She added: “Many Asian Americans are consistently bullied and mocked for their native foods, and this segment amplifies and encourages it.”

Speaking to Howard Stern earlier this month, Corden said the food menu has changed. He said that he will now try to scare his guests with snacks that will ruin their diets, such as a pizza with cheeseburgers on top.

“The next time we do that bit we absolutely won’t involve or use any of those foods,” Corden said. “Our show is a show about joy and light and love – we don’t want to make a show to upset anybody.”

But in an email to Today, Saira wrote that she is “really disappointed” in Corden’s statement, and that she had only found out about it via Today, weeks after the TV host’s appearance on The Howard Stern Show.

“In my petition, I have specifically asked for James Corden to publicly apologise on his show, and the reason why I was really specific about that was because I think that it is imperative for his hundreds of thousands of viewers to understand the harm that mocking these foods, rooted in Asian cultures, has on Asian people who still eat them,” she wrote.

Whether Corden makes a further statement remains to be seen.