Last night, while he was a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, comedian and host Chris Hardwick revealed that his @Midnight series has been renewed for a second season, through 2015.
Airing Monday through Thursday nights on Comedy Central, @Midnight features a group of comedians playing against one another. They play various games and come up with funny material based on popular new catchphrases or images from the Internet.
Here’s the press release:
COMEDY CENTRAL(R) GOES FOR THE WIN RENEWS “@MIDNIGHT” FOR SECOND SEASON
Produced by Funny Or Die and Executive Produced by Chris Hardwick, Thomas Lennon, Robert Ben Garant, Mike Farah, Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler, Jon Zimelis, Jack Martin and Alex Murray and Co-Executive Produced by Joe Farrell
Late-Night Sensation has Highest Social Engagement in all of Late Night Including #HashtagWars that Trend Worldwide Nightly
Episodes Currently Available on cc.com and the Comedy Central App
NEW YORK, August 12, 2014 – Attention fans of the internet: #HashtagWars, Rapid Refresh and Sweet Emoji moments are here to stay. Comedy Central has renewed the Emmy(R)-nominated “@midnight” for a second season, it was announced today by Kent Alterman, President, Content Development and Original Programming, Comedy Central. The renewal of the #1 brand in comedy’s late-night hit series, hosted by Chris Hardwick and produced by Funny Or Die, is for a 40-week season that will air throughout 2015.
“People always ask me when ‘@midnight’ airs,” said Alterman.
“‘@midnight’ has been an absolute dream come true for me-a game show of internet jokes with my comedian friends,” added Hardwick. “I cannot thank Comedy Central enough for letting us continue. If they hadn’t, you can damn well bet that I would have forced people to come over to my house to play it anyway, for no audience, so everyone is thankful we dodged that bullet.”
“@midnight” airs Monday-Thursday after “The Colbert Report” and is executive produced by Hardwick, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant; Mike Farah for Funny Or Die; Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler and Jon Zimelis of Serious Business; showrunner Jack Martin; and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Funny Or Die’s Joe Farrell serves as a Co-Executive Producer. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.
“@midnight” leads viewers down the ultimate internet wormhole with a rotating lineup of today’s top comedians battling nightly to determine who has the funniest take on the day’s social media and pop culture. Using social media as the catalyst and a fake game show as the setting, “@midnight” challenges comedians to win the Internet by slashing the craziest, most absurd news and posts that social media has to offer: from the latest celebrity Instagram shots to the creepiest Craigslist posting to Buzzspeed lists and infamous #HashtagWars.
Dominating the social media landscape in the late-night arena and receiving a 2014 Emmy(R) nomination for “Outstanding Interactive Program,” “@midnight” boasts the highest social engagement among all of the late night series, garnering more than 5 million mentions since its premiere in January and generating over 10 billion impressions. Averaging over 200,000 weekly online mentions, the show’s signature #HashtagWars have taken Twitter by storm, topping Twitter’s Trending Topics nationally and worldwide on a nightly basis (source: Nielsen Social Guide All Network Types/Late Fringe/All Series/Live or New 2014). On-air the series is averaging 769,000 total viewers each night and ranks #4 in all of late night with People 18-34, Men 18-34, People 18-24, Men 18-24. “@midnight” also reaches the youngest (median age: 32 years) and most male (68%) audience of any late night talk show. (source: Nielsen Media Research, Season 1 (1/6/14-7/27/14), most current, premieres only; median age based on P2+; ranks based on impressions)
Guest panelists that appeared on the show include Judd Apatow, Doug Benson, Jason Biggs, Neal Brennan, Hannibal Buress, LeVar Burton, Ice Cube, Andy Daly, Will Ferrell, Ilana Glazer, Seth Green, Jonah Hill, Abbi Jacobson, Kyle Kinane, David Koechner, Natasha Leggero, Thomas Lennon, Joe Lo Truglio, Marc Maron, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Jonah Ray, Rob Riggle, Kristen Schaal, David Spade, Amber Tamblyn, Channing Tatum, Aisha Tyler, David Wain, Wil Wheaton, and Weird Al Yankovic.
Available on-air, online and on-the-go, Comedy Central (www.cc.com) is the #1 brand in comedy and is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA and VIAB).
What do you think? Have you been watching the @Midnight series? Glad to hear that it will remain on the air?
