The first episode of Taylor Tomlinson’s new hosting gig has aired and it’s… not what I was expecting. I guess I didn’t know this was a reboot of @midnight, which was apparently a game-show style TV show featuring comics telling canned jokes about the internet. I honestly couldn’t get through more than a couple of minutes. This seems way below Tomlinson’s grade honestly. She’s an outstanding and very popular comedian and this seems like the kind of gig you get when you were 3rd billing on a popular sitcom a decade ago. The show isn’t unfunny but I’d hoped this would be a late night variety show.
@midnight was frequently a lot of fun, but it depended strongly on the guests (sorry, “contestants”) they had on a particular night. It used to be one of my regular watches with the wife, but an insomniac 3 year old makes a return to that kind of unlikely for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the show.
Conversely I’m delighted it’s this and not another late night show. I’ve never understood why the US doesn’t have more panel shows, or just generally more TV/radio outlets for comedians to be funny outside of sitcoms and specials. @midnight wasn’t perfect (even aside from his other issues, Hardwick always came across as super needy, which is a weird vibe for a host), but it was a great way to find about new comics and to get to see familiar ones.
Agree 100%. Panel shows seem perfect for todays drive toward “unscripted” programming. Part of the magic of those shows is the interaction among the guests – which is a big reason why even something like the Graham Norton Show is so superior to our late night one-guest-at-a-time plugfest talk shows.
I’m a big Taylor Tomlinson fan; her comedy is so sharp and self aware. I’m sure she will make After Midnight as good as it could be, but the forced game show format is unnecessary and the whole thing already feels a bit dated. Something like that David Spade late night show Lights Out (which was a blip about 4 years ago, killed by Covid probably) would be better – ditch the gameshow facade and just have the comics sitting in comfy chairs riffing on the same internet/pop culture stuff and each other or whatever.
I disagree, the game show format helps a lot with panel shows (the alternative has been tried in the UK* and it mostly doesn’t work). The important thing is that the show doesn’t take the scoring seriously. It’s just a vehicle for comedy.
And I suppose to a limited extent in the US - the Larry Wilmore show had a discussion segment.
I really liked @midnight and this new version has been OK - not great - so far, but these shows always start out rough IMO. I don’t think they did themselves any favors by seeming scared to explain the show at all - Colbert plugged it several times as just “a new late night show” and even when he interviewed Tomlinson she was super vague about it. The only hint I had that it was a remake of @midnight was the name and I wasn’t sure until I watched it. From some comments I saw online a lot of people went into it thinking they were getting Late Show part 2. Seems like an unforced error; hopefully doesn’t get it killed before it can get going.
Pretty mixed-to-negative feelings on the first episode. I’m glad that somebody in the US is taking a stab at a UK-style panel show, where the game and score are purposely stupid & absurd excuses to get fun people together and talking.
But the Internet meme driven format they chose is SO forced and instantly forgettable. It constantly gets in the way, and the writers don’t yet have the confidence ignore it when necessary. IMO those digressions where the show goes off-the-rails are often the best parts of Cats Does Countown and similar programs.
Hope it find legs, because Tomlinson herself is charismatic and fun to watch.
Agreed. As a viewer, this feels like a bait and switch. You can almost feel her disappointment even in the first episode, although she is of course very professional about it. I’m certainly disappointed it’s not a talk show. This would be fine as a regular segment on a traditional variety show, but her crowd work skills would shine in audience interaction and celebrity interviews.
First episode was god awful. I couldn’t help but think it was an extremely poor version of Game changer or Make Some Noise. It felt like a show centered around 40+ somethings that have a vague understanding of younger folks and their wacky Internet stuff.
Had no idea that this is what the show would be. Taylor definitely deserves a lot better.
American audiences just don’t get the fake competitive format, that’s been a standard on BBC for a long time. Nobody is supposed to care what’s going on, it’s basically just giving prompts and letting comedians make jokes.
I think there are too many rounds and too many moments though. They need to settle the “game show” parts of it down and let the comedians breathe a bit. The whole thing that makes that BBC format work is everyone being comfortable. The current format makes everyone uncomfortable. They need to have a prompt, then shoot the sh#% for 7 minutes, then make some stupid answers, then do it a couple more times.
I do think it’s gotten a lot better as they get higher tier comedians on - clearly (sadly for them) the early episodes were the warm body comedians while they get the format figured out.
But every comedian seems pretty confused about if they’re supposed to take the game show bits seriously or not. Finally in the last few days they’re getting guests who understand it’s just f’ing around. But we’re so competitive as Americans it’s hard wire into everyone to take it seriously, especially the older guests, they have a hard time wrapping their head around the format. And oh lord, I feel so sorry for some of these older guests that can’t seem to stop humiliating themselves in this format.
Every guest should be made to watch and episode of Would I Lie To You to figure out what they ought to do. And maybe the writers too.
Yea that was great - but even then, by the end Weird Al started kind of acting … childishly stupid, and they lost Thomas Lennon, who seemed on board until then and was ready for it to over by the end. It was kind of embarrassing. Not as embarrassing as the one when she asked a bunch of 50-60 year old comedians to rank female singers and they ran around taking it seriously, though.
The previous one was actually funnier - Pete Holmes understood the format a lot better and was able to play off everyone.
I haven’t watched that one yet but I find it hard to believe Lennon doesn’t understand the format. He produced the previous iteration of the show and was on it loads of times.
Oh he understood it - but when both Carey and Weird Al were acting so dumb (the latter rolling around on the ground trying to put his leg over his head), and Taylor couldn’t figure out how to rein them in, I think he just decided to pull back a bit. By the end he had kind of shut down a little. Even early in he was kind of horrified by Drew Carey’s self deprecation. That’s not necessarily a format issue per se except that the formst seemed to be encouraging self flagellation, and he quickly decided not to be a part of that.
