‘American Auto’ Actress X Mayo in Running to Fill James Corden Late Night Slot
CBS is reportedly nearing the selection of a new host to take over the time slot previously occupied by James Corden’s Late Late Show. In line with their earlier announcement, CBS has opted not to continue the same show with a different host but to introduce a revamped edition of the popular Comedy Central game show, @midnight.
As reported by Puck News, CBS’s CEO, George Cheeks, is presently in the process of evaluating three potential hosts: X Mayo, a former Daily Show writer and American Auto actress; Ricky Velez, a stand-up comedian, and Taylor Tomlinson, a comedian, and writer.
The exact nature of CBS’s rebooted version remains uncertain, but it’s worth recalling how Comedy Central ran the show from 2013 to 2017. In each episode, a panel of comedians engaged in witty banter about internet culture and the day’s headlines. The contestant in third place was eliminated before the final round, known as FTW (For the Win), and the top contestant was crowned the “Internet winner” for the subsequent 23.5 hours until the next episode of @Midnight.
Notably, Chris Hardwick, the original host of @midnight, is not associated with CBS’s reboot. Stephen Colbert and Funny or Die are producing this new incarnation.
Cheeks confirmed the @midnight reboot during a panel at the Banff World Media Festival on Tuesday, June 13, in Alberta, Canada. He said airing directly after The Late Show With Stephen Colbert was a natural program.
“The 12:30 a.m. slot is ripe for reinvention,” he said. “There aren’t a ton of people watching at that hour, you really do need to think about what is the true cross platform version? What we ended up doing, first of all, it’s Funny or Die and Stephen Colbert, so the auspices couldn’t be any better. But when we sat down and talked about it, we talked about @midnight, and it’s sort of been an irreverent comedy game show with stand-up comics and celebrities as guests. To me, it has a really nice feel coming out of Colbert.”
