“Sometimes when times are tough, you want to be with family and not have anyone else over.” That’s how Taylor Tomlinson explained the decision to bring on three of her show’s staff writers as panelists for Thursday’s After Midnight.
The unusual episode, which was pre-taped on Wednesday in the immediate wake of the election, was certainly heavy on gallows humor.
“The vibe in here is so weird,” Tomlinson noted at the top of the show. “As the show was warming up, I could feel everyone in here going, ‘Oh, we’re still listening to music?'”
After an abbreviated monologue, Tomlinson introduced the night’s panelists: Skyler Higley, a former Conan writer; Sam Taggart, who previously wrote on Ziwe; and Michelle Davis, who also worked on Ziwe and A Black Lady Sketch Show before joining Tomlinson’s team.
While obviously thrilled to be on the show, the awkwardness of making your national TV debut before a still-shellshocked studio audience didn’t go unnoted by the three writers/comics.
“I feel set up to fail,” joked Taggart. “The vibes couldn’t be worse. It is sort of like, ‘Why now?'”
Although the other late-night shows returned to some semblence of normalcy Thursday night, Wednesday saw each of the hosts strike a particularly somber tone. While Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and Seth Meyers commanded the lion’s share attention for their post-election remarks, Tomlinson–late-night’s least overtly political host–also weighed in Wednesday night.
“A lot of people today feel shellshocked and depressed and can’t believe they have to go to work—me too,” she said. “But I will say it is an honor to be on television while women are still allowed to be.”
“I’m honestly really mad,” Tomlinson continued. “I’m mad at everyone who comforted me last week and told me it was gonna be okay. I’m mad at myself for believing this wouldn’t happen. I’m mad at CBS for hiring me so that I cannot immediately leave the country.”
“A lot of people want solutions, so they’re posting today about what we can do to move forward, and I think that’s valuable,” she added. “But also, let’s take a f**king second to be sad. If your friend dies, you go to the funeral and you say, ‘I really miss my friend.’ You don’t go to the funeral and immediately scream, ‘Volunteer at the library!’ Like, yes, okay, I’ll volunteer at the library, but let me bury democracy first.”
Tomlinson addressed the election results again in her monologue Thursday. “I’m in a weird place mentally,” she said. “Last night, I changed my dating app settings to find matches in other countries. … I know moving to another country is the ‘threatening to get bangs’ of political elections, but I actually mean it.”
After Midnight airs Monday through Friday at 12:37 a.m. ET on CBS. Episodes are also available to stream on Paramount+.
Iran is looking for women not wearing Burkas to throw from rooftops. Good luck. Jimmy Kimmel is planning his departure. Maybe carpool to LAX and save some carbon credits, Karen 304.