Comedy Central has slipped a new game show onto its schedule by wisely downplaying the fact that it\'s a game show. Basically in the same vein as TBS\'s new Trust Me, @midnight is a comedy program with game show trappings. In interviews, host Chris Hardwick even said he\'s going for that classic British comedy game vibe where everybody\'s actually trying to do their best, but in the end the game itself doesn\'t really matter. Think Whose Line?, but trying really hard to be hip.
Midnights (duh!) after Colbert.
The show, at least for now, repeats the previous night\'s episode weeknights at 8pm ET.
Caught a few minutes last night. Not impressive -- as Matt O. notes, everyone is trying way too hard to be \"edgy\" and the jokes are rather filthy and flat. It definitely has a British panel show vibe to it, but the fun seems forced and uneventful.
JD
Caught a few minutes last night. Not impressive -- as Matt O. notes, everyone is trying way too hard to be \"edgy\" and the jokes are rather filthy and flat. It definitely has a British panel show vibe to it, but the fun seems forced and uneventful.
was willing to cut them a little slack *because* they were making this stuff up on the fly. (I\'m also not scared off because of a little blue humor.)
As always on \"spontaneous\" shows like this, there\'s a little part of me that wonders exactly how much is \"on the fly\". It looked to me that the comics may have known in advance what some of the questions were going to be so they\'d have time to come up with humorous responses. (\"My Little Porny\" last night struck me as a little too clever to have been ad-libbed off the cuff.)
I like it enough to at least DVR it for now- though they \"borrowed\" some ideas from YDKJ...
Watching episode one now. I\'ve laughed my ass off at the Movie Title Poop hashtag game. I\'ll watch episode 2, but if I was midnight and intoxicated, I\'d love this.
As always on \"spontaneous\" shows like this, there\'s a little part of me that wonders exactly how much is \"on the fly\".
Well, they definitely have time to edit. The taping schedule posted at OCA implies that there are 5 days between tape and air for each episode (Monday\'s show was taped last Wednesday).
The show feeds to us about an hour before we air it, so if anything\'s spontaneous about the show, it\'s on our end. Especially if Colbert feeds late and holds things up.
The taping schedule posted at OCA implies that there are 5 days between tape and air for each episode
Are you sure? An episode with James Adomian, June Diane Raphael and Mike Lawrence is about to tape (7 PM ET) and Comedy Central\'s site lists them as the guest for tonight\'s episode. (Same with tomorrow\'s taping/airing)
Tape-to-air is interesting, but as far as my point is concerned, I\'m really only suggesting that maybe they know some of the questions an hour or so before they start rolling, so they\'ve had more time to figure out some funny lines. Doesn\'t even have to be scripted, and Hardwick may very well be hearing the responses for the first time.
Are you sure? An episode with James Adomian, June Diane Raphael and Mike Lawrence is about to tape (7 PM ET) and Comedy Central\'s site lists them as the guest for tonight\'s episode. (Same with tomorrow\'s taping/airing)
Who, who and who?
/Please remove yourself from the fescued field adjacent to my dwelling.
Who, who and who?
There\'s a lot of that. Save for Doug Benson I haven\'t heard of a contestant yet. But hey, it\'s a game show played for no money on at midnight on a basic cable channel; I\'m not expecting F-list, much less A-.
If you know Chris Hardwick and have a Twitter account, you\'re in!
Well, they definitely have time to edit. The taping schedule posted at OCA implies that there are 5 days between tape and air for each episode (Monday\'s show was taped last Wednesday).
Save for Doug Benson I haven\'t heard of a contestant yet.
You must not listen to many podcasts.
I actually do; just not a lot of comedy ones.
In a strange way as I watch the show more, it starts to rub off on me. I wouldn\'t air it five days a week though, save the humor injection for the next week.
-Dan
The very funny program aired its last episode tonight for a while, the end of a month-long \"experiment\" as Chris Hardwick called it. January marks its return, though, with Comedy Central picking up 40 weeks of @midnight to join Stewart and Colbert as permanent late-night partners.
Aw man! I haveta wait six weeks? Dammit. Thrilled that it was picked up, though.
Excellent news. @midnight is the first show I watch on the DVR after work. @midnight is also getting younger viewers; several of my 9th graders were talking about @midnight in the lunchroom several days ago. I never would have guessed my 9th graders would watch a show like @midnight.
Wow...40 weeks? That\'s pretty sweet, esp. since Comedy Central (Viacom for that matter) likes to do maybe 13 weeks here and there, then let the show quietly fade away.
It\'s an impressive order, but I\'m glad this got picked up. It\'s a hilarious show and I respect Chris Hardwick\'s vision of trying to make it feel like a British panel show.
Aw man! I haveta wait six weeks? Dammit. Thrilled that it was picked up, though.
I\'m with you, brother! I\'m gonna be lost until it comes back! I can\'t recall any show that has made me consistantly laugh until I hurt like @midnight...but I\'m beyond thilled that CC has such confidence in it to give it a 40-week pickup! There are so many comedians, YouTubers and podcasters that I\'m eager to see make an appearance!
JakeT
It\'s pretty much a full 2014 pickup- they\'re apparently going to follow the taping schedules of Daily Show and Colbert Report, which do 42 weeks of shows a year.