When it emerged that CBS was eschewing a traditional talkshow at 12:30am following the departure of The Late Late Show host James Corden for a reboot of Comedy Central gameshow @midnight, many in the late-night community worried that it was another nail in the genre’s coffin.
However, CBS CEO George Cheeks said that the way he’s looking at it is that that slot is “ripe for reinvention” and said that the move doesn’t mean that it would never bring back a more traditional late-night show in that slot.
“It’s an irreverent comedy gameshow with stand-up comics and guests, it has a really nice feel coming out of [The Late Show with Stephen] Colbert,” he said during a Deadline moderated panel at the Banff Media Festival. “There’s not a ton of people watching linear TV at that hour, you really do need to think about what the true cross-platform version is.”
Deadline broke the news of the move in February. The reboot of the format that aired on Paramount’s Comedy Central between 2013 and 2017 is produced by Funny or Die and exec produced by Colbert. “The auspices couldn’t be any better,” added Cheeks. “In a world when you’re trying so hard to sort of drive awareness of the show’s launch, to have Colbert, the number one late-night show, as executive producer and the integrated support he’s going to have, because he’s actually invested in the success of the show. I think it’s got a really good shot at reimagining that late-night slot.”
Cheeks said that they were close to finding a showrunner and a head writer before the strike and is still hopeful that they’ll score the talent that they’re keen on. However, he said that they didn’t prioritize a host, because they wanted to lean into the format element of the show, which was previously hosted by Chris Hardwick.
“Let’s spend all our time talking about what the format should be, how we’re going to reimagine it, how we conceive it, and then we’ll optimally decide who’s the best talent that fits,” he said.
The original Comedy Central show, in its first incarnation, was an Internet-themed panel game show where three guests competed in a series of improv games. These included Rapid Refresh, where contestants choose an answer based on an Internet meme or headline; tweet-themed Hashtag Wars; and Live Challenges, where contestants wrote answers over the commercial break; as well as a plethora of recurring games.
Former NBC exec Cheeks was complimentary of Seth Meyers – Corden’s timeslot rival who will now be going up against @midnight – calling him a “genius” but admitted that the economics of late-night “are what they are” and @midnight is expected to come in much cheaper than The Late Late Show with James Corden.
“I feel like at this point where our business is headed, I think it’s going to be harder and harder to rationalize the traditional talk show at 12:30am,” he told Deadline. “I do believe that 12:30am is an opportunity to experiment and try new things. It doesn’t mean a talk show won’t someday take that slot, but I really liked the idea of reimagining what that late-night format can look like.”