The star-studded video skit posited that CBS had chosen its new host in a Willy Wonka-esque lottery, slipping the winning ticket for the job inside a chocolate bar. Comedians like Chris Rock and Joel McHale unwrap bars and pretend to be crestfallen to find no ticket. The piece also alluded to complaints that networks pick only white males for these kinds of jobs: Chelsea Handler, whose late-night talk show on E! ended last year and who would have been a likely candidate, buys the golden ticket-holding candy bar at a newsstand but then drops it as she goes to put it in her purse — Mr. Corden comes along and scoops it up.

In his opening monologue, Mr. Corden made fun of his obscurity. “I know what you’re thinking,” he told the audience. “ ‘Oh look: Andy Richter’s got his own show.’ ” He does look a little like Mr. Richter, and like Mr. Richter, who is Conan O’Brien’s talk show sidekick, Mr. Corden seems suited to playing second fiddle.

His conversations with Ms. Kunis and Mr. Hanks were pleasant, but not particularly witty or outré. He did challenge Ms. Kunis for being coy about whether she is married to Ashton Kutcher, the father of her child; he wouldn’t accept her “maybe” as an answer and grabbed her hand to show a ring.

He also did an amusing skit with Mr. Hanks, a quick-change montage of scenes from Mr. Hanks’s most famous movies that allowed Mr. Corden to wear a blond wig to impersonate Meg Ryan. (Cross-dressing is in the British comedy Bill of Rights.)

CBS recruited some very talented writers and producers to back Mr. Corden, as well as Reggie Watts, the musician-comedian (late of “Comedy Bang Bang”) who is his bandleader and announcer. At the close of the show, Mr. Corden sang a solo ditty, perhaps to signal to viewers that besides appearing in the movie “Into the Woods,” he is also a Tony-winning Broadway performer for his role in “One Man, Two Guvnors.”