CNN is doubling down on late-night-inspired comedy.
The news channel is bringing the long-running BBC panel show Have I Got News For You to American audiences, commissioning a limited-run adaptation set to air this fall. The show will run Saturday nights in primetime.
Have I Got News For You, which first premiered on the BBC in 1990, features comics, celebs, and pundits competing in a news-based quiz show.
The pickup comes as CNN continues a push into comedy programming. In March, the network began re-airing episodes of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Saturdays at 8 p.m. ET. A time-slot for Have I Got News For You was not announced.
The show will be produced by Hat Trick Productions, which produces the original series, and air under the CNN Originals banner.
The announcement was made today at the upfront presentation of CNN parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
“The series is the standard bearer of the genre and ripe for its American reincarnation as we revitalize Saturday nights on CNN,” said Amy Entelis, EVP of talent for CNN Originals and creative development for CNN Worldwide, in a press release.
Fox News made their own foray into Saturday-night comedy with Fox News Saturday Night, which premiered last year and named Jimmy Failla as permanent host earlier this year. That move followed the success of the news channel’s 10pm weeknight comedy series, Gutfeld!, which typically draws more live-plus-same-day viewers than the network late-night shows.
