Taylor Tomlinson’s Late Night Show ‘After Midnight’ Premieres – Fans React

Martin Holmes
2 Comments
Taylor Tomlinson hosts After Midnight
CBS/YouTube
After Midnight

After Midnight, the new late-night show hosted by comedian Taylor Tomlinson, finally landed on our screens on Tuesday night (January 16), well, technically Wednesday morning, given its 12:37 am timeslot.

The show aired immediately after The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and is a replacement for The Late Late Show, which ended its run last year after James Corden exited the series. Colbert serves as an executive producer on the new show, which is a reboot of the old Comedy Central series @midnight.

“I’m Taylor Tomlinson, and this is After Midnight, where three comedians enter, one wins, and two will regret participating,” Tomlinson said at the top of the episode, per Variety. “We’re taking the internet and desperately trying to make it fun. It’s gonna be fun, right? Comedians, you’ll be competing for the grand prize of my father’s approval. It is rare but winnable.”

Unlike the traditional late-night talk show format, After Midnight is designed as a panel game show. Three comedians battle it out in a series of rounds, with the aim of making Tomlinson and the audience laugh. Whoever impresses the host the most earns the points.

Whitney Cummings, Aparna Nancherla, and Kurt Braunohler were the first set of guests to play the game, taking on rounds such as “Group Chat,” “Hashtag,” “Tik Chopped,” “What I Can’t Live Without,” “Suburban Dictionary,” “To Smash or Not to Smash,” and “Is This Still Cool?”

In “Group Chat,” the comedians discussed the Emmys, with Tomlinson noting, “I don’t even know what awards our show can possibly win because it’s kind of a talk show where there’s no conversation. It’s a game show, but the points are fake. It’s a vanity project, but it somehow makes me look worse.”

First episode of After Midnight

CBS/YouTube

She then asked the panelists to name an award After Midnight might win at the Emmys, to which Braunohler quipped, “Best Female late-night host. Sorry, ONLY female late-night host.”

The “Hashtag” segment saw the comedians tasked with inventing “lesser-known TV shows,” which included answers like “Bottom Chef,” “Sex in the City of Hoboken,” and “Rand Paul’s Drag Race.”

Meanwhile, “Suburban Dictionary” involved the comedians choosing popular modern slang words such as “bussin, yeet, mid, and lewk,” and using them as a suburban parent would.

Cummings was first to be eliminated from the competition, which left Braunohler and Nancherla to face off in “For The Win,” where they were asked to create new holidays.

“Today is Harbor Day: A celebration of America’s Harbors, the parking lots of the sea,” Braunohler said. “That’s Harbor Day, not Arbor Day. Everybody knows what a tree is, so why doesn’t Arbor Day just shut the f*** up and go with Tree Day. Sincerely, Harbor Day.”

But it was Nancherla who won with “Ashley Wednesday. It’s Ash Wednesday, for girls with bangs.”

The reaction to the first episode was mixed, with some seeing potential in the format and Tomlinson as host.

“I know it’s in its infancy but IMO @midnight needs to start with a short, A- block monologue so people understand @taylortomlinson humor, plus it would connect her to the audience better. Then move into the game show portions,” wrote one fan on X.

“Not bad for being the first one. I’m hoping it’ll gel into something great,” added another.

Meanwhile, others were already impressed, with one fan writing, “The series premiere of #AfterMidnight was so good. I have not laughed like that in so long. All of the points to everyone involved with tonight’s episode. Happy Ashley Wednesday.”

Check out more reaction below.

After Midnight, Weekdays, 12:30 AM/11:30 PM C, CBS

After Midnight key art
Taylor Tomlinson

Taylor Tomlinson

⨁Full Cast & Crew

CBS

Talk Show

2024–2025

TV14

Talk

Comedy

Latest Headlines

More After Midnight ›
After MidnightTaylor Tomlinson



Conversation2 Comments

Please read the TV Insider Community Guidelines.

Comments are closed on this story.

  1. A

    Antonio Montealegre

    It was all right...

  2. O

    OliveBeer

    Did any of these commenters watch the old @Midnight? Doesn't seem like it. A monologue would just be weird to me. Hardwick never had an hour, but the point of the show is to simply mock the stuff people are looking at online. That's it. It's simple, and that's the beauty of it. Maybe she could tease some of the stuff they'll be mocking at the top, but that would also lose some of the spontaneity from the panelists who really make or break the show. It's at its best when the panelists are quick-witted comedians, so I was happy to see regulars from the old show like Braunohler & Cummings in the premiere. I knew I would get some laughs from them, and Aparna, whose dry sense of humor I've seen on a bunch of shows lately. I loved Tomlinson as host, especially when she asked Whitney after another inappropriate response, "Do you WANT to be on the show tonight?" The new games were excellent, especially picking the right cartoon dates. I laughed the hardest at them trying to justify their choices. I didn't need another show keeping me up late, but this one is definitely going to.