Comedy Central has renewed wee-hours program “@midnight” for a third season, ensuring the quirky look at the latest in trending topics and social media hosted by Chris Hardwick will remain on the Viacom network’s lineup throughout 2016.
“Creating a new franchise in latenight is no small feat, and we couldn’t be more proud of Chris and the entire team for what they’ve accomplished,” said Kent Alterman, president of content development and original programming for the network, in a prepared statement.
The series taps a rotating lineup of comedians in a fake game show setting to dissect the most absurd news and tidbits emerging each day on social media, whether they be the latest celebrity Instagram shots or the creepiest Craigslist posting. The program debuted in the 12 a.m. slot in the fall of 2013, following the now-defunct “Colbert Report.” The series airs Monday through Thursday.
After Jon Stewart leaves the network’s signature “The Daily Show” in August, “@midnight” host Hardwick will have the longest tenure of any current Comedy Central latenight host. Larry Wilmore, who anchors the current 11:30 p.m. show “The Nightly Report,” launched that program earlier this year, and Trevor Noah, who will take over “The Daily Show” in September, is a relative unknown to broader audiences.
The pickup of a new season “gives us the runway to tackle next year’s election, which I’m guessing will yield no shortage of social-media gems,” Hardwick said in a statement.
Comedy Central said “@midnight” reaches the youngest and most male audience of any latenight talk show, with a median viewer age of 33 and an audience that is 68% male. The program ranks second among male viewers between 18 and 34 and third among all viewers between 18 and 34 in latenight.
“@midnight with Chris Hardwick” is executive produced by Hardwick, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant; Mike Farah and Joe Farrell for Funny Or Die; Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler and Jon Zimelis of Serious Business; showrunner Jack Martin; and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the executives in charge of production for Comedy Central.
