https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/cbs-eyes-reboot-midnight-to-replace-late-late-show-with-james-corden-1235516359/#:~:text=CBS%20is%20expected%20to%20replace,the%20network's'%20parent%20company%2C%20Paramount

CBS is expected to replace (https://t.co/AAvCJjoSuL) its long-running “Late Late Show” after a 28-year run with a reboot (https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/10wi8fo/the_late_late_show_with_james_corden_to_be/) of the Comedy Central game show “@midnight,” according to a person familiar with the matter, in a maneuver that would cut costs and also revive a programming concept controlled by the network's' parent company, Paramount ...

It will need to be renamed @12:37. :lol:

CBS Prepares '@midnight' Reboot 'After Midnight' for Early 2024 Release (https://collider.com/at-midnight-reboot-after-midnight-release-window/)

Taylor Tomlinson, X Mayo, and Ricky Velez are in the running to host the 'Late Late Show with James Corden' replacement.


CBS plans to release its reboot of the Comedy Central series @midnight, now called After Midnight, in early 2024 as a replacement for the Late Late Show with James Corden.
The original @midnight ran for 600 episodes from 2013 to 2017 and was a popular internet-themed game show that earned Emmy nominations.
The creative team behind the original show is returning for After Midnight, and CBS is currently considering Ricky Velez, X Mayo, and Taylor Tomlinson as potential hosts.


CBS is eyeing an early 2024 release for its reboot of the Comedy Central series @midnight. Now operating under the name After Midnight, the late-night game show was announced earlier this year as an eventual replacement for the outgoing Late Late Show with James Corden which drew the curtain on its eight-year run back in April. The showrunners and crew are set for the show's return, though CBS is still currently weighing who will take the reins once it premieres.

@midnight originally ran for 600 episodes from 2013 through 2017 as an internet-themed game show following the latest trends on social media and throughout the web. Then-host Chris Hardwick would be joined by a cavalcade of comedian guests who would compete to "win the internet for the next 23.5 hours" in a series of improv games based on popular memes, hashtags, topics, current events, and everything else that floods the internet. The series was a success on Comedy Central, earning a pair of Emmy nominations during its stint after The Daily Show and The Colbert Report.

Pieces of the creative team that made @midnight a success are back for After Midnight including showrunner Jack Martin. He'll now share his duties with Eric Pierce whom CBS has familiarity with as an executive producer on both The Challenge: USA and The Wheel. Joining them as an executive producer for the reboot is the man who will once again precede their show, Stephen Colbert, alongside Carrie Byalick, president of Colbert’s Spartina Industries, The Late Show executive producer Tom Purcell, Colbert’s wife Evelyn McGee Colbert, and his manager James Dixon of Dixon Talent. Joe Farrell, Mike Farah, Whitney Hodack, and Henry R. Muñoz III from Funny Or Die also executive produce with Jason U. Nadler of Serious Business, the original creator of @midnight. Joe Perra Talks to You and Ziwe writer Jo Firestone will be the series's head writer.

Although the host who will succeed Hardwick has yet to be named, CBS is reportedly close to a decision on that front. The field has narrowed to three candidates including Ricky Velez, X Mayo, and Taylor Tomlinson. Velez is a comedian and Pete Davidson collaborator, previously appearing in both the SNL alum's The King of Staten Island and Bupkis. He also previously recurred in several episodes of Single Drunk Female. X Mayo, meanwhile, would make a strong choice to take the reins considering her previous experience writing for The Daily Show. She also recently enjoyed roles in American Auto, The Blackening, and Swarm. Last but not least, Tomlinson is a fast-rising comedic talent with a pair of popular Netflix specials to her name, Quarter-Life Crisis and Look At You.

Whoever ends up hosting, Colbert was eager to welcome the new series into the slot right after his The Late Show. "We are thrilled to be reunited with our friends at Funny Or Die," he said in a statement. "My hope is that every night, After Midnight will be just as ridiculous as the internet is every day. Plus, the original @midnight aired after The Colbert Report, so welcoming this new show to 12:30 feels like coming home." Muñoz III echoed his sentiment, adding "Funny Or Die is proud to partner once again with CBS Studios, Spartina Industries, and our longtime friend and collaborator Stephen Colbert. Now that we are all old enough to stay up until after midnight, I’m excited for this show to harness the power of comedy and laughter to bring us all together."

Stay tuned here at Collider for more as After Midnight selects a host and moves toward its early 2024 premiere date. All four seasons of the original @midnight can be bought or rented through Prime Video.

Taylor Tomlinson-Hosted Late-Night Series Gets Premiere Date at CBS
by Rebecca Ianucci
Jan 4, 2024


CBS‘ forthcoming late-night series "After Midnight", hosted by stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson, will premiere on Tuesday, Jan. 16, the network announced Thursday. New episodes will air at 12:37 am ET, following broadcasts of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".

"After Midnight" is described as “the smartest show on television about the dumbest things on the Internet.” Each night, Tomlinson and a panel of TBD guests will unpack “what set the Internet abuzz that day, with a game show feel.”

https://tvline.com/news/after-midnight-late-night-show-premiere-date-cbs-1235108461/

Taylor Tomlinson-Hosted Late-Night Series Gets Premiere Date at CBS
by Rebecca Ianucci
Jan 4, 2024


CBS‘ forthcoming late-night series "After Midnight", hosted by stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson, will premiere on Tuesday, Jan. 16, the network announced Thursday. New episodes will air at 12:37 am ET, following broadcasts of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert".

"After Midnight" is described as “the smartest show on television about the dumbest things on the Internet.” Each night, Tomlinson and a panel of TBD guests will unpack “what set the Internet abuzz that day, with a game show feel.”

https://tvline.com/news/after-midnight-late-night-show-premiere-date-cbs-1235108461/

That’s 11:35pm Central on January 15 when After Midnight debuts

Taylor Tomlinson's After Midnight has a deliberately low-key premiere on CBS (https://variety.com/2024/tv/news/taylor-tomlinson-cbs-late-night-series-after-midnight-premiere-1235874856/)

“I’m Taylor Tomlinson and this is After Midnight (https://forums.primetimer.com/forum/8581-after-midnight/), where three comedians enter, one wins and two will regret participating,” the comedian said in opening the first episode of the late-night game show, which was taped Tuesday at Paramount Studios (in contrast to James Corden's The Late Late Show, which was filmed at Television City three miles away). According to Variety's Michael Schneider, "the decision to keep the After Midnight premiere lowkey is by design: Allow the new show to find its voice over the next few weeks, prior to the Super Bowl and return of first-run scripted series in February, when more eyeballs will be back at the broadcast networks."

CBS should let Taylor Tomlinson be herself as host of After Midnight (https://www.cracked.com/article_40808_after-midnight-needs-to-let-taylor-tomlinson-be-taylor-tomlinson.html)

(suggestion for the "After Midnight" of this topic: no vulgarity (such as vulgar language))

(suggestion for the "After Midnight" of this topic: no vulgarity (such as vulgar language))

Suggestion for you: Double-Speak please stop you must.

Suggestion for you: Double-Speak please stop you must.

"Double-Speak"?

"Double-Speak"?

Yes, such as "no vulgarity (such as vulgar language)"

Yes, such as "no vulgarity (such as vulgar language)"

(disagrees)

dXw9SkWod9E

With the departure of James Corden's horrible show, a void needed to be filled with something watchable. In comes the reboot of the web-savvy comedy show @midnight with After Midnight. Is it as good as the original? Tune in and get ready to win some points!

"After Midnight" Renewed for Season 2 at CBS
by Peter White
June 11, 2024


Taylor Tomlinson for the win. CBS has renewed her late-night show "After Midnight" for a second season. It comes after the show launched in January.

Airing after "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert", the show will return for a second season in the 2024-25 season.

https://deadline.com/2024/06/after-midnight-taylor-tomlinson-renewed-season-2-cbs-1235969503/

CBS cancels Taylor Tomlinson's After Midnight, scraps 12:30 a.m. (https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/business/media/taylor-tomlinson-after-midnight-canceled.html#:~:text=CBS%20said%20on%20Wednesday%20that,time%20to%20stand%2Dup%20comedy.)

CBS (https://tvline.com/news/after-midnight-cancelled-cbs-taylor-tomlinson-host-1235422698/) said on Wednesday (https://www.reddit.com/r/AfterMidnight/comments/1jkjqf7/after_midnight_canceled_after_two_seasons_on_cbs/) that it was canceling (https://www.reddit.com/r/television/comments/1jkjngi/after_midnight_canceled_after_two_seasons_on_cbs/) “After Midnight (https://forums.primetimer.com/topic/149318-season-2-discussion/page/3/),” the network's 12:30 a.m. comedy show (https://www.resetera.com/threads/cbs-cancels-after-midnight-after-two-seasons.1145748/), after the host, Taylor Tomlinson, decided to return full time to stand-up comedy.

Too Bad CBS, the 12:30am EST is heading to its local affiliates for good, no regrets seriously.

CBS taps Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen to again take over the post-Stephen Colbert timeslot, succeeding After Midnight (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/byron-allen-comics-unleashed-after-colbert-cbs-1236230677/)

The syndicated Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, which followed The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in fall 2023 and early 2024 to temporarily fill the timeslot left by The Late Late Show with James Corden, will take over the 12:37 a.m. timeslot again starting on Monday, Sept. 22. Comics Unleashed succeeds Taylor Tomlinson's After Midnight, which is ending June 12. Comics Unleashed will air two back to back episodes. As The Hollywood Reporter's Tony Maglio notes, "CBS said it will no longer program the time slot, though it was unclear if the hour would be kicked back to local stations — it was not." Byron Allen, the media mogul who kicked off his entertainment career in 1979 as an 18-year-old standup comic on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGnui6uUpI4), said of his show: “Comics Unleashed is a true passion for me, simply because this world can never have enough laughter. I created this show so that the best comedians can all come together and help bring non-stop laughter.”

Taylor Tomlinson says goodbye to After Midnight: "I just I can’t believe that I got to do it as long as I did." (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/taylor-tomlinson-bids-farewell-midnight-033218151.html)

CBS taps Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen to again take over the post-Stephen Colbert timeslot, succeeding After Midnight (https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/byron-allen-comics-unleashed-after-colbert-cbs-1236230677/)

The syndicated Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, which followed The Late Show with Stephen Colbert in fall 2023 and early 2024 to temporarily fill the timeslot left by The Late Late Show with James Corden, will take over the 12:37 a.m. timeslot again starting on Monday, Sept. 22. Comics Unleashed succeeds Taylor Tomlinson's After Midnight, which is ending June 12. Comics Unleashed will air two back to back episodes. As The Hollywood Reporter's Tony Maglio notes, "CBS said it will no longer program the time slot, though it was unclear if the hour would be kicked back to local stations — it was not." Byron Allen, the media mogul who kicked off his entertainment career in 1979 as an 18-year-old standup comic on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGnui6uUpI4), said of his show: “Comics Unleashed is a true passion for me, simply because this world can never have enough laughter. I created this show so that the best comedians can all come together and help bring non-stop laughter.”

Will Byron Allen be the last network late-night comedian standing? (https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2025-08-11/byron-allen-comics-unleashed-cbs-late-night)

LOS ANGELES, CA-JANUARY 9, 2015: Los Angeles Times reporter Stephen Battaglio

By Stephen Battaglio
Staff Writer

Aug. 11, 2025 3 AM PT

Before Byron Allen became a media mogul, he was one of those comedians whose life was changed by Johnny Carson.

Growing up, Allen would accompany his mother to the NBC lot in Burbank, where she worked as a publicist, and was provided with a show business education. An aspiring comic who played comedy clubs as a teenager, he regularly waited in the parking lot for the late-night host to exchange a few words before tapings of “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.”

When Allen was 18 years old, he became the youngest comic to appear on Carson’s “Tonight” stage. It led to a regular role on the NBC prime-time series “Real People” and a successful stand-up career that had him touring for two decades.

Now Allen, 64, is poised to reenter the late-night TV arena — and just when the genre is at a crossroads. CBS’ decision to end “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” next May raises questions about the future of the nocturnal kingdom Carson once ruled.

Allen will become a part of the CBS late-night lineup starting Sept. 22, when his series “Comics Unleashed” takes over the 12:30 a.m. time slot and will follow Colbert during his final season.

Allen’s series hasn’t produced a new episode since 2016, but the 233 that were made during its original run have remained in syndication and aired as a stopgap for CBS in 2023 after the network canceled the money-losing “Late Late Show With James Corden.” The network is picking up “Comics Unleashed” for the 2025-26 season as the successor to Corden replacement “After Midnight With Taylor Tomlinson,” which concluded its second and final season in June.

Allen has no illusions about why CBS has turned to “Comics Unleashed” again.

“It’s not cheaper,” Allen said. “It’s zero.”

Allen Media Group buys the airtime on CBS for “Comics Unleashed” and keeps most of the advertising time on the program to sell.

It’s the same formula Allen used for “Entertainers With Byron Allen,” the program that launched his company in the 1990s. Allen would score interviews with major stars at press junkets and cut them into a weekly program.

He would go to the National Assn. of Television Program Executives conference, an annual TV marketplace for syndicated programming, and tell station owners that when the high-priced new shows they were buying failed, they should come to him and get “Entertainers” for free. The stations received half the commercial time while Allen sold the rest to national advertisers from his kitchen table.

“I’m addicted to selling,” Allen said.

CBS said Colbert’s show is being canceled for financial reasons, with insiders saying it was accruing losses of $40 million a year.

“The Late Show” may have the most viewers in late night, but Colbert has the biggest piece of a shrinking pie. Nielsen data show the number of homes using television between 11:35 p.m. and 1:35 a.m. has declined around 13% in the first six months of 2025 compared with the same period last year. Ad revenues for all of the shows have declined dramatically as well over the last few years.

Late-night shows are expensive to produce, with high-priced hosts, large writing staffs and the costs of servicing live audiences. While they generate revenue from clips on social media, they don’t do well on streaming. The topical nature of the shows diminishes their value as library product, which helps keep subscribers hooked on streaming platforms.

What makes “Comics Unleashed” different than traditional late-night franchises is that it’s designed to have a longer shelf life.

In the recent reruns that have aired on CBS and in syndication, viewers heard an occasional joke about the Bush administration or a plug for a comic’s MySpace address. But for the most part, the shows contain few references that date them.

“I tell the comedians we’re shooting ‘I Love Lucy,’” Allen said. “Something that’s evergreen. So I don’t want to hear any political humor. Just be funny, family-friendly and advertiser-friendly.”

In addition to veteran comics Allen has known for years, the series booked many stand-up stars before they became household names, including Kevin Hart, Whitney Cummings, Sebastian Maniscalco, Nate Bargatze and Chelsea Handler.

Stand-ups who toil on the comedy club circuit are thankful for the exposure the show provided.

“To me, Byron is the patron saint of comedians,” said Greg Romero Wilson, who wrote for the program and appeared as a panelist. “He’s given so many opportunities to comics of every level. From up-and-comers to names you’ve known your whole life, Byron makes room for everyone.”

Stand-up comic Shang Forbes said he hears from audience members at clubs who recall bits from episodes of the series he taped years ago.

“It was a very good experience,” Forbes said. “I was surprised how many people saw it.”

Allen wanted “Comics Unleashed” to re-create the camaraderie he experienced during his own stand-up career, which started when Jimmie “J.J.” Walker hired him as a 14-year-old joke writer alongside David Letterman and Jay Leno. (“Let me ask my mom,” Allen said when he got the offer.)

“What I remember most is that comedians were at their funniest afterwards when we went to Canter’s Deli,” Allen said.

Since buying the Weather Channel for $300 million in 2018, Allen has made a habit of throwing his hat in the ring whenever a legacy media company is said to be up for sale. But he recently reached a deal to sell 10 of Allen Media Groups’s 28 TV stations to Atlanta-based Gray Media as part of an effort to reduce the privately held company’s debt and invest in streaming.

As the owner of network affiliate stations, he is well aware of the economic challenges facing traditional TV as viewers migrate to streaming, driving down ratings and ad revenue.

“All of it is under pressure,” he said. “The networks are spending more on sports and less on nonsports content.”

Allen spends a lot of time talking to bankers and lawyers — over the last decade he’s filed lawsuits against Comcast, McDonald’s and Nielsen, all of which were settled — but despite running a business, he will host new episodes of “Comics Unleashed” himself. He plans to produce 132 half-hours, which will run back-to-back with repeat episodes. He will also be writing some jokes.

“You never stop being a comedian,” he said. “It’s a muscle that never goes away.”

Taylor Tomlinson says goodbye to After Midnight: "I just I can’t believe that I got to do it as long as I did." (https://ca.news.yahoo.com/taylor-tomlinson-bids-farewell-midnight-033218151.html)

Seriously Tomlinson, your show ran for only two seasons in total. How is that considered "As long as I did"?