It doesn’t take long to figure out that Steve Waltien, Eliana Kwartler, Michael Cruz Kayne, and Asher Perlman, co-hosts of the new Jokes On News podcast, have worked together for years.
You can hear it in the easy way they riff on one another during episodes, and even in casual conversation. When asked what will set this project apart, Cruz Kayne claims that he’s only ever listened to three podcasts in his life—and without missing a beat, Kwartler cuts in, “One of them is Joe Rogan.”
What else should we expect from four comedians who’ve spent years working together writing The Late Show?
The idea for Jokes On News first came from Late Show news producer Katherine Shen, whose duties included sitting in on the writing team’s morning meetings, where they’d dream up ways to make even the worst news funny. What if all of us could be flies on the wall for those conversations?
“She came to us with it, and it sounded so cool, and she wanted help fleshing it out,” Waltien told LateNighter during a recent group conversation with the four writers. “That’s where the four of us got on board.”
Jokes On News runs for 35 to 45 minutes and releases weekly. In each episode, you’ll find that trademark blend of analysis and wisecracks that makes traditional late night so entertaining. The comedians pick their favorite stories and take turns walking us through them, with lots of tag-teaming along the way.
But as similar as the process might be to the team’s Late Show days, the informal setting also allows for some digressions that never would’ve made it to air.
“There are things that could never have been on network television, that we get to go so long on,” Kwartler said. “Like, in episode two, the very extended riff on all the animal fucking.” (If you’re reading that and scratching your head, look up Kash Patel’s latest change to FBI hiring practices; you won’t be disappointed.)
Over time, the crew hopes to welcome everyone who worked on Late Show for guest appearances at their roundtable. Then, in the future, maybe they can invite other guests from the world of late night as well. “We’re trying to get Greg Gutfeld to sit in,” Cruz Kayne deadpanned. “We’ll see what his avail is.”
Even just three episodes in, Jokes On News nails the intimacy needed to make a show like this sing. The comedians bounce off one another effortlessly, and crucially, they come prepared to discuss the topics at hand—no waiting around for everyone to do some quick Google searches and catch up, like you might find in less professional productions. Whether or not you’ve already heard the news items up for discussion, it’s hard not to be entertained as these hosts make hay of Donald Trump’s self-described “ban on the free press” and the possibility that AI could maybe, possibly kill us all.
True to the pod’s promise, you can start to see how monologues are written—or, at least, where they start—listening to these conversations.
“You’re going to get the feeling of what it was like to be there in the morning, digest the news together, and try and find a way to look at it that is both funny and also incisive,” Cruz Kayne said. “It’s a really fun and exciting challenge, and it’s really fun to do with your friends.”
Jokes On News comes at an obviously difficult time for late night. The Late Show’s cancellation announcement last year sparked an outpouring of mourning, and despite then-CBS president George Cheeks’ assertion that the cancellation was “purely a financial decision,” the timing of its announcement—just after Colbert had called Paramount’s settlement with Donald Trump a “big, fat bribe” with the Paramount-Warner merger looming—left some onlookers, including the creator of the Late Show franchise, David Letterman, furious.
As painful as it was to say goodbye to Late Show after 10 months of corporate purgatory, the show’s seven Emmy wins this year (including its first for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series) helped provide closure—even if Perlman did poke himself in the head with the gold statuette, prompting a quick trip to a “well equipped but underused” medical tent.
Misadventures aside, Cruz Kayne said, “The highlight of [Emmys night] was being around my friends, because I really miss these people, which is, I think, a testament to the show.”
Some might claim that podcasts and Twitch streams are the future of late night, but despite the turbulence the genre now faces, the Jokes On News team doesn’t believe it’s going anywhere.
As Cruz Kayne pointed out, The Late Show’s monologues generated millions of YouTube views apiece, in addition to the millions who tuned in to watch the show live on CBS. “At some point, the most evil people you know will figure out a way to monetize that, and then, those jobs will come back,” he said. “But I think until they have figured that out, we might go through kind of a downswing.”
There’s no match for the grandeur of a full-fledged late night show in a setting like the Ed Sullivan Theater, with a live band and live audience of hundreds of people, Waltien added. Jokes On News is not here to replace late night, but its creators do hope to create something special in its own right, with a similar sense of communal catharsis.
“It’s a little bit less formal,” Waltien said, but at the same time, “it’s also more intimate. You don’t experience it in the same way.”
Perlman echoed that sentiment. “My favorite part of working at The Late Show was getting to spend every morning with some of the smartest, funniest people I know, processing everything that’s happened,” he said.
As much as the co-hosts relish the opportunity to commiserate about our news apocalypse together, they also hope to help their listeners do the same. That’s why, in addition to YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram, they’ve also established a foothold on Substack, where they hope listeners can gather and do some collective processing of their own.
“We’re trying to create a space where everyone can sort of be in this together,” Perlman said, because “feeling alone in this time is very hard.”
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