CNN has good news and bad news for fans of Have I Got News For You. The good news is the show has officially been renewed for a third season. The bad news is we’ll have to wait until early September for new episodes.
There will, however, be some new HIGNFY content coming our way before then, with the show set to launch a new companion podcast this summer.
Roy Wood Jr, Amber Ruffin, and Michael Ian Black are all returning for the show’s third season. “Now that we know that none of us will be pope, we proudly announce our return for Season 3 of Have I Got News For You this fall,” the trio joked in a joint statement.
Premiering in September 2024, the American adaptation of the long-running British series has been well-received by critics and audiences alike.
Airing on what has traditionally been a dead night for cable news, Have I Got News For You has been a strong ratings performer for CNN on Saturday nights, where it has often outperformed the network’s weekday primetime shows. The show also streams the next day on Max (er, HBO Max).
Though it’s not technically a late-night show (since it airs at 9pm), late night is in HIGNFY‘s DNA, and its success has been a rare glimmer of hope at a time of contraction for the time period. (The show is staffed with quite a few late night vets, including most prominently host Wood, along with Ruffin and Black, who serve as the show’s team captains.)
As LateNighter’s Bill Carter noted in a recent sit-down with the show’s creative team, for executive producer Jim Biederman, the show’s success has been a long time coming. Biederman had produced four different pilots for an American adaptation of Have I Got News For You over twenty years before CNN CEO Mark Thompson finally picked it up, seeing a way to match it with the replays of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on Saturday nights.
“Have I Got News For You continues to serve as a humorous reprieve for audiences on Saturday nights without ever losing its bite,” said Amy Entelis, executive vice president of talent, CNN Originals and creative development for CNN Worldwide. “The continued success of our Saturday primetime lineup shows that topical entertainment programming is resonating with CNN viewers.”
There’s no word yet on whether the show’s episode order has been upped for its third season. Seasons 1 and 2 were comprised of ten episodes apiece. We’ll keep you posted.
