CBS has announced the executive producing team, showrunners and head writer for After Midnight, which will take the place of The Late Late Show with James Corden. After Midnight premieres early in 2024. Stephen Colbert, host of The Late Show, is an executive producer. 

Comedian Taylor Tomlinson will host After Midnight, an announcement made by Colbert on the November 1 episode of The Late Show. The standup comic is known for her Netflix specials Look at You and Quarter Life Crisis, CBS said in a statement. 

CBS Studios, Colbert’s Spartina Industries and Funny or Die are partners on the show, which will air weeknights at 12:37 a.m. Executive producers are Colbert; Carrie Byalick, president of Spartina Industries; Tom Purcell, executive producer of The Late Show; Evelyn McGee Colbert; and James Dixon of Dixon Talent. Executive producers from Funny Or Die are Joe Farrell, Mike Farah, Whitney Hodack and Henry R. Muñoz III. Jason U. Nadler of Serious Business, who co-created Comedy Central late-night show @midnight, which inspired After Midnight, is also an executive producer. 

Co-showrunners are Jack Martin, showrunner on all four seasons of @midnight and showrunner for CBS game show Raid the Cage, and Eric Pierce, whose credits include The Challenge: USA and Hollywood Game Night. They executive produce as well. Jo Firestone will be co-executive producer and head writer. Firestone’s credits include Ziwe and The Tonight Show. 

“We are thrilled to be reunited with our friends at Funny Or Die,” Stephen Colbert said. “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.”

Corden signed off from The Late Late Show earlier this year. 

“Funny or Die is proud to partner once again with CBS Studios, Spartina Industries and our longtime friend and collaborator Stephen Colbert,” said Funny or Die Owner Henry R. Muñoz III. “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.”

Late-night hosts Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and John Oliver have teamed up on a podcast called “Strike Force Five,” which debuts on Spotify August 30. All proceeds from the podcast go to staffers of the late-night shows, who are not working due to the writers’ strike. 

Spotify says, “Strike Force Five welcomes you to a conversation between five rival colleagues for an inside look at late-night television.” It describes how the five hosts decided in the spring to meet weekly, via Zoom, and discuss the Hollywood strikes and what they mean for late-night TV. “What ensued was a series of hilarious and compelling conversations,” Spotify said. 

The series will run for at least 12 episodes, with each host serving in the revolving moderator role. 

Colbert hosts The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS. Fallon hosts The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on NBC. Kimmel hosts Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC and Seth Meyers hosts Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC. Oliver hosts Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO. 

Podcast sponsors are Mint Mobile and Diageo (Aviation American Gin, Bulleit Frontier Whiskey, Casamigos and Ketel One Vodka). 

“Have you ever wondered what it would be like to watch a football team with five quarterbacks on the field at once?” Spotify wondered. “Introducing Strike Force Five!”

Sixteen celebs will take part in a pickleball tournament on the special Pickled, which airs on CBS November 17. Stephen Colbert's Spartina produces with Funny or Die and CBS Studios. Colbert will sing the national anthem with Kenny Loggins, and the tournament winners get the Colbert Cup.

The celebs are Jimmie Allen, Murray Bartlett, Dierks Bentley, Jaime Camil, Will Ferrell, Max Greenfield, Luis Guzman, Phil Keoghan, Daniel Dae Kim, Sugar Ray Leonard, Tig Notaro, June Diane Raphael, Kelly Rowland, Paul Scheer, Aisha Tyler and Emma Watson.

The special will raise funds for Comic Relief US.

"If you love pickleball and you love celebrities and you love helping people, you’re going to love watching these celebrities help people by playing pickleball," said Colbert, host of The Late Show on CBS.

"Funny or Die is so proud to produce Pickled. Along with Stephen Colbert, CBS and our celebrity players, we all came together for two great causes: to support Comic Relief US and to add more articles about Pickleball to everyone's newsfeed," said Mike Farah, CEO of Funny Or Die.

Announcers Cari Champion, John Michael Higgins and Bill Raftery will add color and commentary.

Calls to action during the broadcast will raise funds to support Comic Relief's safety programs, which address the life-altering impact of homelessness, rootlessness and lack of safety often experienced by children and families living in poverty.

Claussen Pickles and Oofos Active Recovery are sponsors of the event.

Executive producers are Funny or Die's Mike Farah, Joe Farrell and Henry R. Muñoz III, and Spartina’s Stephen Colbert, Carrie Byalick, Evelyn McGee Colbert and Tom Purcell.

Tennis Channel holds its own celebrity pickleball event October 13. ■

Late-night shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on NBC, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS and Jimmy Kimmel Live! on ABC, will be part of Climate Night Wednesday, Sept. 22. The shows’ programming will focus on climate change. “Each show will approach the issue with its own signature brand of humor and the shared goal of helping audiences to think more about the defining issue of our time,” said organizers. 

“I don’t want to die,” said Kimmel.

“In the interest of recycling, please use whatever Jimmy Kimmel said,” said Fallon.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee on TBS, Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Comedy Central and The Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS are also taking part in the event. 

"I'm thrilled to participate in Climate Night," said Bee. "But maybe we should move it up a few days? Just because, you know, it's urgent?"

Climate Night will take place during Climate Week NYC, the summit of global leaders and climate activists in New York City to promote actionable solutions. Climate Night was created by former The Daily Show and Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj showrunner Steve Bodow. 

"Climate change has gone very fast from 'probably the future,' to 'actually, right now' – which means we all need to be talking and thinking about it much more," said Bodow. "Late-night hosts reflect our national conversation even more than Russian Twitter bots set it – so this incredible group of shows coming together makes a statement about the scale and urgency of the world's hottest problem."

Each show will encourage its audience to learn more about the issue and how they can get involved.

"I'm proud to dedicate one entire night of my show to the climate, so I can say I wasn't part of the problem, I was 1/365th of the solution,” said Colbert.

The Late Show With Stephen Colbert returns to the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York June 14 with a full, vaccinated audience. 

The show has gone more than a year, with 205 episodes, without a live audience amid the pandemic. Sixteen of the 205 episodes have been filmed live, with no spectators. 

The Late Show airs on CBS. It went remote on March 16, 2020, when Colbert delivered his monologue from his bathtub at home. 

“Over the last 437 days, my staff and crew (and family!) have amazed me with their professionalism and creativity as we made shows for an audience we couldn’t see or hear,” said Colbert. “I look forward to once again doing shows for an audience I can smell and touch.”

Also Read: CBS Reveals 2021-2022 Schedule

Guests will be required to show proof of being fully vaccinated prior to entering the theater. Face masks will be optional.  

Colbert, Chris Licht, Tom Purcell and Jon Stewart are the executive producers of The Late Show.

President-elect Joe Biden and his wife Jill are on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Dec. 17. Colbert sits with the Biden's in Wilmington, Delaware. The episode starts at 11:35 p.m. ET/PT on CBS. 

It is the Biden's first joint television appearance since the election, according to CBS. 

George Clooney is a guest on the program Dec. 18. 

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert broadcasts from the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York. 

Executive producers on The Late Show are Colbert, Chris Licht, Tom Purcell and Jon Stewart.

Stephen Colbert will host a live election night special on Showtime Nov. 3. Stephen Colbert’s Election Night 2020: Democracy’s Last Stand: Building Back America Great Again Better 2020 goes on at 11 p.m. ET and runs for an hour. Guests include Charlamagne Tha God and Alex Wagner, John Heilemann and Mark McKinnon of Showtime politics show The Circus. 

Colbert hosts The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on CBS, corporate sibling of Showtime. 

“It’s going to be a great night although my therapist has reminded me America has to WANT to change,” said Colbert.

Colbert hosted an election night special on Showtime in 2016. 

Colbert, Chris Licht, Tom Purcell and Jon Stewart are the executive producers of the special, and of The Late Show.

In a matter of weeks, COVID-19 has upended industries across the board, including entertainment and media companies that have had to close down studio productions. Many are now pivoting to social video as a way to connect with audiences and deliver a much-needed escape via entertainment content.

A new report from social video analytics company Tubular Labs shows how audience consumption of entertainment content is changing during the pandemic. It explores how influencers, especially late-night hosts, are leaning into video to keep their fans entertained. But first, some topline insights from the report:

Entertainment Category Reigns Supreme for Social Video

When it comes to social video, the entertainment category is the No. 1 creator genre on YouTube and Facebook for both views and uploads across the last year. Although entertainment influencers upload more videos, media companies make up a slightly larger share of views.

Related: Late Night Shows Are Back with ‘WFH’ Formats

Not only do U.S. creators account for the most views of entertainment content worldwide (132 billion in the last year), U.S. entertainment content attracts a global audience, with 35% of its views coming from outside the U.S.

"Digital video's reach has no boundaries,” said Rob Gabel, CEO at Tubular Labs. “With the world awash in anxiety and people physically separated, right now — more than ever — video entertainment is a catalyst for banding global citizens together and providing much-needed optimism during these unprecedented times."

When it comes to entertainment content types, the TV and movies category makes up the biggest portion of views on YouTube (112 billion in the last year). For videos uploaded between March 12 and April 3 as the coronavirus pandemic spread and many Americans were forced to shelter at home, TV-related content amassed 564 million views, with nearly half (253 million views) coming from late-night talk shows, led by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (A&E and American Idol also rank high).

Late-Night Hosts See Explosion in Views With “Stay-at-Home” Shows

With production studios now closed, late-night TV show hosts are taking to social video to bridge the gap and bring fans new content from their own homes — and it seems to be working. The ‘Home Edition’ of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon received a significantly higher V7 views rating (views in the first seven days since a video was published) in the last couple of weeks than the show did over the last year (1.2 million vs. 517K). Jimmy Kimmel’s series of quarantine “minilogue” videos reached higher V7 views than his show throughout the last year (1.1 million vs. 419K). And virtually hosting late-night concerts has been a successful approach, most notably for James Corden of The Late Late Show in recent weeks (962K vs. 599K).

"During this quarantine, celebrities are as human and relatable as ever,” said Gabel. “There’s something fun about seeing your favorite host broadcasting from their personal domain. It makes us feel a kind of solidarity because even celebrities are affected by the quarantine, and they’re still doing whatever they can to bring joy to fans around the world."

How Live Streaming Fits Into the Picture

While indie influencers are used to producing content live and are thus thriving in these times, media companies can tap into this trend too. Entertainment influencers are still getting more of people’s live watch time, but media companies have been catching up in the weeks after the outbreak, with 66% growth.

But there’s also an opportunity for media companies to tap into their rich content repository and repurpose their best performing evergreen content: 66% of the U.S. entertainment content watched from the start of the outbreak is content from 2019 or older.

You can download the full entertainment report from Tubular Labs here. 

Showtimehas ordered 10 episodes of an animated series about the Trump White House, Showtime Networks president and CEO David Nevins announced Thursday.

Stephen Colbertwill executive produce the currently untitled show, which will premiere this fall.

"I know a lot of people wanted to do this, and I'm honored that the Cartoon President invited our documentary crew into his private world,” Colbert said. “I've seen some of the footage, and I look forward to sharing the man behind the MAGA."

Chris Licht, who is an executive producer onThe Late Show With Stephen Colbert, will also serve as an EP on series.

“Stephen and Chris have an uncanny genius for deconstructing the world of President Trump, and this series opens a new realm for them,” Nevins said. “Their vision will produce a comedy that makes waves, gets attention and plays great on our networks, including our streaming service.”

The series comes from CBS Television Studios.

New Comedy Central president Kent Alterman, who earlier this month took over for departing network head Michele Ganeless, inherits a network that has struggled of late from a ratings perspective but is being looked upon by Viacom CEO Philipe Duaman to help spur the company’s financial fortunes.

Alterman recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead to discuss the network’s brand, its appeal to millennials and the struggles of its late-night franchises The Daily Show With Trevor Noah and The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore.

Related:MCN Original Video: Kent Alterman discusses the evolution of "The Daily Show" under Trevor Noah

MCN: How would you define the Comedy Central brand?

Kent Alterman: I’ll start by how our audience defines it, which is that it’s the No. 1 brand in comedy across all platforms. For me, what unifies all of our talent and content that we put out there is that they bring a very distinct point of view and voice to what they do that generally shares some degree of relevance, intelligence and an ability to reflect the world back at our audience in a way that gives them a break from the world.

MCN: You’re coming in at a time when the network’s ratings have been declining for some time. How do you view the network’s ratings performances and what can be done to curtail viewership declines?

KA: The entire industry is facing the same challenges, especially in reaching our young millennial audience. Viewing behaviors are changing, so we’re pursuing dual tracks.

We’re tending to the linear ratings – our audience consumes original content, and reruns don’t mean so much anymore, so we’re looking at ways to have more and better content.

We’re also making sure that we not only make our content available on all platforms, but also that we’re creating original content that is conceived and executed with these different platforms in mind so that it feels more organic. We were the only entertainment channel to be part of Snapchat Discover and we’ve been doubling down on how much original content we’ve been creating for that platform. It also affords us a development pipeline in the sense of making more bets with emerging talent and having more ways to working with talent in general on different platforms so that we can open up the aperture of our talent development.

MCN: Having said that, what would you consider to be the network’s core shows?

KA: The good news for us is that we’ve been having this great run of shows like South Park, Tosh 2.0 and The Daily Show, which has been an institution. We don’t have Jon [Stewart] but we’re bullish on Trevor. The Daily Show under Trevor Noah is the No. 1 late night show with male millennials and second overall after [The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy] Fallon. It’s been experiencing several months of repeated growth, so all the signs are pointing the right way, and creatively Trevor is taking the ball and running with it – we’re really pleased with his evolution.

There are other shows that are incredibly popular including Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer, Drunk History, Another Period,Nikki Glazer and so on. Ultimately what we feel gratified by is that in the last several years we’ve had a great run in introducing new talent, and they are all resonating with our audience.

MCN: You mentioned The Daily Show, and obviously a lot has been written about the show’s declining ratings as well as those of The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore since Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert left the respective shows. From your perspective, how have those shows performed with their new hosts and what if anything can be done to get ratings for the shows back to prior levels?

KA:  I think you have to look at a few things. It’s not like we replaced those shows at a time when there was stability in the marketplace of our business. It coincided with a period of incredible disruption in our business, and so its almost an unfair comparison; its not apples to apples. Even if you look at our late shows now and you include all the platforms where people are watching complete episodes – whether its on our website or our app or Hulu – the numbers are really significant, so it’s a tough comparison. What we care about the most is our fans and how [the shows] are resonating with our fans, and we try to keep our eye on that ball.

MCN: What are the biggest challenges the network is facing today?

KA: We’re living in a very tumultuous, disruptive time in our industry, and so I think we’re all facing the same challenges. No one knows how it's all going to settle out, and for the most part we try to keep our eye on what’s most important, which is our talent and our content. No matter what changes come in our industry, the thing that will never change is the importance of having content that resonates for our audience.

MCN: You mentioned programming for multiple platforms. How much does the digital platform influence the content development and distribution decisions you have to make?

KA: We’re trying to be very holistic about development and not so much separate linear with multiplatform distribution, but just continue to serve all masters simultaneously. We don’t just produce our content and then chop it up and distribute it on other platforms. We’re really expanding our aperture to work with different people and develop content that is targeted to different platforms because, ultimately, we are led more than anything else by our audience, and our audience is consuming content in different ways on different platforms, so we want to be able to meet them where they are.

Comedy Central has set Jan. 19 as the premiere date for The Night Show with Larry Wilmore series, the network said Thursday.

The Daily Show alum’s new show will take over The Colbert Report’s 11:30 timeslot as series host Stephen Colbert leaves Comedy Central  in January to succeed David Letterman as host of CBS’ The Late Show.

The Night Show with Larry Wilmore,  hosted by the actor/comedian/writer/producer, will feature a diverse panel of minority voices, according to the network. The series, created by Jon Stewart, will be produced by Stewart’s Busboy Productions. Stewart, Wilmore and Rory Albanese will serve as executive producers, according to the network.