Author Topic: @midnight with Chris Hardwick (Read 8283 times)

Matt Ottinger · « **on:** October 23, 2013, 11:53:23 AM »

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.

colonial · « **Reply #1 on:** October 23, 2013, 12:12:00 PM »

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

clemon79 · « **Reply #2 on:** October 23, 2013, 12:14:36 PM »

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.

I haven\'t seen last night\'s yet, but I saw the premiere. Interestingly enough, I rather enjoyed it (in spite of Doug Benson) and 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.)

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #3 on:** October 23, 2013, 12:44:18 PM »

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.)

clemon79 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 23, 2013, 01:21:11 PM »

That\'s true. Nevertheless, I was entertained and would watch it again.

weaklink75 · « **Reply #5 on:** October 23, 2013, 03:19:43 PM »

I like it enough to at least DVR it for now- though they \"borrowed\" some ideas from YDKJ...

pacdude · « **Reply #6 on:** October 23, 2013, 05:03:44 PM »

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.

mystery7 · « **Reply #7 on:** October 23, 2013, 06:12:52 PM »

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 http://on-camera-audiences.com/shows/midnight\'>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.

chad1m · « **Reply #8 on:** October 23, 2013, 06:51:01 PM »

The http://on-camera-audiences.com/shows/midnight\'>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 http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/-midnight\'>site lists them as the guest for tonight\'s episode. (Same with tomorrow\'s taping/airing)

clemon79 · « **Reply #9 on:** October 23, 2013, 06:58:40 PM »

It seems that the show is current-events-driven enough that there would need to be a quick turnaround between taping and airing.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #10 on:** October 23, 2013, 09:39:00 PM »

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.

Thunder · « **Reply #11 on:** October 23, 2013, 09:40:48 PM »

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 http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/-midnight\'>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.

TLEberle · « **Reply #12 on:** October 23, 2013, 09:47:21 PM »

There\'s a great episode of The Nerdist podcast with Jimmy Carr that discusses the varying sensibilities of American and British audiences, and it also goes a ways to explain why I don\'t grab 8 Out of 10 Cats as much as I used to, though I still find the idea of that and Would I Lie to You? Fascinating and fun.

clemon79 · « **Reply #13 on:** October 23, 2013, 10:29:23 PM »

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-.

Matt Ottinger · « **Reply #14 on:** October 23, 2013, 11:01:20 PM »

If you know Chris Hardwick and have a Twitter account, you\'re in!