Taylor Tomlinson will host a new late-night show airing on CBS called “After Midnight,” a new incarnation of Comedy Central’s “@midnight,” Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” announced during his show on Wednesday.
Colbert first told his audience that there would be a new late-night show and described the ideal host as someone “fun, likable, young, in touch with online trends and available every night of the week.” When he called for suggestions from the audience, Tomlinson raised her hand and joked that she could host. After a few jokes back and forth and an enthusiastic response from the audience, Colbert called Tomlinson up to the stage and introduced her as the official host of the new show.
“Please welcome the newest late-night host, Taylor Tomlinson!” Colbert cheered.
“After Midnight” will air on CBS at 12:37 a.m. ET and stream on Paramount+. Colbert will be one of the show’s executive producers, according to a news release, along with other representatives of CBS Studios, Funny or Die and Spartina Industries. Jo Firestone will be the show’s head writer, and former “@midnight” showrunner Jack Martin will serve as a co-showrunner alongside Eric Pierce.
“@midnight” was an improvised panel game show that aired on Comedy Central from 2013 to 2017 and was hosted by Chris Hardwick.
“We are thrilled to be reunited with our friends at Funny Or Die,” said Colbert in the news release announcing the new show. “My hope is that, every night, AFTER MIDNIGHT will be just as ridiculous as the internet is every day. Plus, the original ‘@midnight’ aired after ‘The Colbert Report,’ so welcoming this new show to 12:30 feels like coming home.”
What else has Taylor Tomlinson been in?
Tomlinson, 29, has previously made waves with her Netflix standup specials “Quarter-Life Crisis” and “Look at You.” Before her specials, she appeared on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing” competition series and Netflix’s “The Comedy Lineup.”
Tomlinson also hosted a podcast called “Sad in the City,” which ended in 2022, and is in the middle of a national tour.
When she was announced as the host of “After Midnight,” Tomlinson joked that it was the first “real job” she had ever been hired for.
“I’ve been doing stand-up since I was 16, which is not a job,” she told Colbert. “No job! … So like this has been a really fun couple of months, like, I was on TikTok searching like how to nail a job interview — TikTok is Google for children — and, like, ‘How do you impress your maybe boss?'”
Colbert said that he and Tomlinson had spoken over Zoom the night before, when he had told her that she would be hosting the show. A screenshot of their conversation captured Tomlinson’s shocked face.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
“When you log onto the Zoom and realize you should have dried your hair and put on more makeup,” Tomlinson joked. “I didn’t know if I got the job. I thought they were calling to let me down easy. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. To me, this is the face of like — you know when you think you’re going to get dumped, but they propose instead?”
One of Tomlinson’s final jokes was to reassure audience members who might not be familiar with her work.
“I’m 29. So if you don’t know who I am, don’t worry,” she said. “I barely know myself!”
