Regular viewers who tuned into After Midnight mid-show last night to find its host and panelists seated in a more traditional talk show setting might have worried for a moment that the comedy game show had changed formats altogether.
Not to worry, though. Host Taylor Tomlinson has just traded in the tiny couch signifying the show’s “talk show portion” for a full-sized one, and when the show returned from commercial break, it was back to “the game.”
That was just one change evident in After Midnight‘s Season 2 premiere as the CBS late-night show, which was introduced last January as something of an experiment, continues to evolve.
The show has also revamped its opening monologue, which itself was introduced midseason last year as a showcase for its host’s sizable comedic chops. Last night’s monologue saw Tomlinson center screen as she performed six minutes of material about dating and technology that felt more like a thematically crafted set you’d see in a comedy club than the headline-based joke-setup-joke pattern familiar to generations of late-night viewers.
One choice line: “Personally, I think an ad is the perfect vehicle for finding someone, because advertisements, much like dating profiles, never lie.”
Later in the show came a new segment that almost certainly owes its existence Drew Carey, who in an seeemingly extemporaneous moment on After Midnight last season, stepped out from behind his podium to deliver a lengthy, impassioned and hilarious rant about his life-changing experience at a Phish concert.
The new segment, titled “Obsess Sesh,” positions each of the show’s three panelists in front of their podiums, where they’re tasked with convincing Tomlinson to care about their obsession. Last night’s debut saw panelists Kemia Behpoornia, Sandy Honig, and Thomas Lennon share why they’re obsessed with, respectively, the WNBA, niche TLC shows, and The Great Halifax Explosion of 1917. (All three proved quite convincing.)
After Midnight has proven to be particularly adept at creative course correction as it carves its own path in late night amid changing viewer habits—and it seems to be paying off. Produced at a fraction of the cost of its predecessor, The Late Late Show with James Corden, the show has been competitive in its timeslot, where it attracts a younger, more advertiser-friendly audience, a rarity these days on broadcast television.
As we’ve previously reported, After Midnight recently hired J.D. Amato to serve as the show’s new co-showrunner. Amato, who joins returning co-showrunner Jack Martin, brings with him a background in non-traditional late-night programming, having served as executive producer on Desus & Mero and The Chris Gethard Show.
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