It’s nice, for a change, to cover a late-night host whose show isn’t being cancelled (Arsenio Hall) or who’s leaving for another gig (Chelsea Handler, Craig Ferguson).
Now that his show, “@midnight,” has been renewed for a second season on Comedy Central, Chris Hardwick says he’s already thinking of other elements to incorporate into next year’s second season.
“The important thing about our show is to figure out how to keep innovating and interacting with different online communities and different platforms,” he says. “I have a dream of being able to put viewers on the show, like a great ‘hashtag warrior’ from Tumblr or reddit and involve them more. I also want to get to the point of aggregating content from all over and want to start creating content and using that for source material.
“I want to bring on a digital team that’s actually creating stuff and putting it out into the world and seeing what happens,” Hardwick says. “Our show is built around social media as source material — it’s not just a component we tack on … the same way that Jon Stewart uses politics [on ‘The Daily Show’] we use online content as our show material.
“It’s our DNA.”
“@midnight” has enjoyed an impressive first-season run, corralling 700,000 viewers each night (Monday-Thursday) and, more importantly, killing it among millennials and in the Twitterverse, particularly with its addictive “#HashtagWars” segment.
“Ultimately we’re making a show that’s fun for us,” Hardwick says. “All the people on this show — from the writers to the producers — are all children of the Internet. This is my dream show. It’s a game show, it’s about the Internet … and ultimately it’s a show of stand-up comics making fun of the Web.”
I asked Hardwick about becoming the “King of the After-Shows,” since he’s hosted “Talking Dead” (following “The Walking Dead”) and “Talking Bad” (following the finale of “Breaking Bad”) — and, on Aug. 23, he’ll host a pre- and after-show on BBC America to mark the season premiere of “Doctor Who” (he’s a lifelong “Who” fan).
“I wasn’t going to do any more [of those] because I didn’t want to be ‘The After-Show Guy,’ but I couldn’t say no to ‘Doctor Who,’ ” he said. “I’ve watched the show since I was a kid … and it’s really great to see the show evolve and morph and change and you kind of grow with it.”
Paisley print: Brad’s new gig
Exclusive: Country music giant and “Rising Star” panelist Brad Paisley is launching a new digital channel, My Country Nation (MyCN) along with partners Taillight and ARC Entertainment (and withWalmart as a presenting sponsor).
MyCN, set to launch Tuesday, will be targeted specifically at country music fans and will feature a variety of shows and special content. More programming will be announced shortly. Stay tuned.