CBS Boss George Cheeks Opens Up About @midnight Reboot: “12:30am Is Ripe For Reinvention”

deadline.com:

When it emerged that CBS was eschewing a traditional talkshow at 12:30am following the departure of The Late Late Show host James Corden for a reboot of Comedy Central gameshow @midnight, many in the late-night community worried that it was another nail in the genre’s coffin.

However, CBS CEO George Cheeks said that the way he’s looking at it is that that slot is “ripe for reinvention” and said that the move doesn’t mean that it would never bring back a more traditional late-night show in that slot. “It’s an irreverent comedy gameshow with stand-up comics and guests, it has a really nice feel coming out of [The Late Show with Stephen] Colbert,” he said during a Deadline moderated panel at the Banff Media Festival. “There’s not a ton of people watching linear TV at that hour, you really do need to think about what the true cross-platform version is.” Deadline broke the news of the move in February.

The reboot of the format that aired on Paramount’s Comedy Central between 2013 and 2017 is produced by Funny or Die and exec produced by Colbert. “The auspices couldn’t be any better,” added Cheeks. “In a world when you’re trying so hard to sort of drive awareness of the show’s launch, to have Colbert, the number one late-night show, as executive producer and the integrated support he’s going to have, because he’s actually invested in the success of the show.

I think it’s got a really good shot at reimagining that late-night slot.” Cheeks said that they were close to finding a showrunner and a head writer before the strike and is still hopeful that they’ll score the talent that they’re keen on.