YouTube is doubling down on its entry into the late-night talk show space, before its first such series has even seen the light of day.
Five months after ordering to series the yet-to-premiere Outside Tonight with Julian Shapiro-Barnum, the Google-owned platform has greenlit another weekly, digitally native late-night talk show—Good Night with Ben Gleib.
Ben Gleib will host, with Keith Harris, the Grammy-winning producer and drummer of the Black Eyed Peas, serving as music director/band leader. Stewart Bailey, a four-time Emmy winner as co-executive producer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and the showrunner of Last Call with Carson Daly, will serve as showrunner.
As first reported by Deadline, Good Night will premiere Thursday, May 28 at 10 p.m. ET, and will also feature a weekly “after-party” episode. Season 1 guests are set to include angel investors Nikki Glaser and Scott Galloway, plus Bob Odenkirk, Tiffany Haddish, Craig Robinson.
At a time when linear late-night shows are testing corporate wallets—see: CBS replacing the canceled Late Show with Stephen Colbert by selling the time slot to Byron Allen’s Comics Unleashed—Good Night with Ben Gleib was pitched to investors as a way to fill a “cultural and commercial void” with a “modern, digital-native late-night show that will capture global audiences at a fraction of legacy network costs.”
An actor, stand-up comedian and writer, Gleib some 20 years ago sold to Fox an ill-fated, eponymous comedy pilot produced by Saturday Night Live’s Lorne Michaels and NBC Universal. He then starred in The Real Wedding Crashers, an NBC/Bravo prank series whose cast also included Desi Lydic (now of The Daily Show).
Gleib was a regular on E!’s Chelsea Lately until that talker’s conclusion; in the traditional late-night space, he also has been a guest on @midnight, Last Call with Carson Daly, The Arsenio Hall Show, and The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.
In August 2014, Gleib made his debut as the host of Game Show Network’s Emmy-nominated Idiotest, which ran for four seasons and on which he also served as head writer/executive producer.
His credits also include the podcast Last Week on Earth with Ben Gleib; the 2016 Showtime comedy special Ben Gleib: Neurotic Gangster (and its follow-ups Ben Gleib: Mad King and Endings); and the sociopolitical news/commentary program The Young Turks.
In May 2019, Gleib announced his candidacy for President of the United States; he dropped out of the 2020 race seven months later, after raising less than $70,000.
