An official announcement from CNN is still forthcoming, but Roy Wood Jr. appears to have let the news slip himself: Have I Got News For You will return for a fifth season this fall.
Wood appeared to confirm the renewal during the show’s Season 4 finale Saturday night, signing off with, “I’ll see you in the fall for more episodes of Have I Got News For You.”
The pickup would extend the run of one of CNN’s most successful recent originals. Since premiering in September 2024, the American adaptation of the long-running British panel show has drawn strong reviews and quietly delivered solid ratings for the network.
Airing on what has traditionally been a dead zone for cable news, Have I Got News For You has become a reliable Saturday-night performer, often outpacing CNN’s weekday primetime lineup. Episodes also stream the next day on HBO Max.
Though it technically falls outside late night with its 9 p.m. time slot, the genre is baked into the show’s DNA—and its success has offered a rare bright spot at a time of contraction for the format. The series is staffed with a deep bench of late-night talent, led by Wood alongside team captains Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black.
As LateNighter’s Bill Carter reported in a 2025 interview with the show’s creative team, executive producer Jim Biederman spent more than two decades trying to launch a U.S. version of Have I Got News For You, producing four separate pilots before CNN CEO Mark Thompson finally greenlit the series. Thompson saw an opportunity to pair it with Saturday-night replays of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher.
No word yet on exactly when the show will return this fall, or whether CNN will expand its episode order. (Seasons 1–4 have each run 10 episodes.) We’ll keep you updated as more details emerge.
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“has become a reliable Saturday-night performer”
I don’t know how. I was “reliably” PREEMPTED for alot of season 4.