@midnight is returning to TV’s comedy lineup after 6 years. Following James Corden’s departure from The Late Late Show, there will be no new host. Instead, The Late Late Show will be ending after almost 3 decades. CBS will instead be airing a reboot of the game show, @midnight. The show originally aired for 600 episodes on Comedy Central from 2013-2017. It will now occupy CBS’s 12:30 time slot, according to sources. The switch will happen in the spring, when Corden says goodbye to the show after almost 9 years.
The original host of @midnight, Chris Hardwick, will likely not return to the reboot. According to Variety, CBS hopes to have a female host on the show. They are also pushing to have more diversity both in front of and behind the camera. In its heyday, @midnight had a quick-witted rotating crew of comedians who played improv games about what was trending on social media. One episode could range in topics from a new Apple emoji to absurd but viral YouTube hits. Guests ranged from Jenny Slate to Ali Wong and even Weird Al Yankovic.
@midnight on Comedy Central
We hear that Stephen Colbert will be executive producing the new @midnight reincarnation. The show comes from the comedy brand ‘Funny or Die’, who created the original series on Comedy Central. This makes two hours of late-night television involvement for Colbert, who also hosts The Late Show at 11:30 on CBS. Colbert also produces Tooning Out the News and Hell of a Week with Charlamagne Tha God, as was previously reported.
A CBS spokesperson declined to comment on the network’s plans for the future of its airtime. However, CBS’s taking of @midnight would mark its second raid from Comedy Central for its late-night airtime. Stephen Colbert jumped from Comedy Central’s The Daily Show to CBS’s The Late Show in 2015. Additionally, Corden’s lack of replacement follows a trend of what’s happening with Late Night TV. TBS never replaced Conan O’Brien following his departure from Conan in 2021. NBC never replaced Lily Singh following the cancelation of A Little Late. The future of late-night TV is certainly up in the air.
[Via]