As James Corden prepares to exit The Late Late Show later this year, CBS has found his replacement, and it’s not just a new host: It’s a reboot of @midnight, the game show originally hosted by Chris Hardwick that aired on Comedy Central.
According to Deadline, Stephen Colbert will executive produce the new @midnight, while Hardwick is not expected to return. In the original series, which comes from Funny or Die, Hardwick led three guests through a series of improv games, usually based on Internet culture. It ran for 600 episodes from 2013 to 2017.
An @midnight revival is sure to be a helpful cost cutter for CBS, which was looking to trim its 12:30am time slot budget from its current $60 million a year to $35 million a year. The original program only took up a 30-minute slot as opposed to The Late Late Show’s hour run time, and a game show would likely require a lot less money than a high-profile talk show.
Related Video
The Late Late Show premiered on CBS in 1995 and has seen Tom Snyder, Craig Kilborn, Craig Ferguson, and James Corden at the host desk. Since announcing his departure from the show last April, Corden has faced a slew of negative press surrounding his character — most notably after a New York City restaurant banned the comedian from the premises for being “the most abusive customer.”
