Chris Hardwick’s @midnight Run Ending August 4
Deadline is reporting that Comedy Central’s @midnight is counting down to their final show. This is a big hit for stand up comics looking for television credits- since 2013, the series offered screen time to approximately 12 stand up comedians every week as they competed for “points” by throwing out one-liners and jokes about whatever was happening in the news and on the web. Both Hardwick and production company Funny or Die, are saying that they made the mutual decision with Comedy Central to bring the series to a close. Of course, mutual decisions to end shows are a lot like mutual breakups- everyone likes to say things ended amicably, whether they do or not. But having no information to the contrary, we’ll take their word for it.
In an interview with Deadline.com, Comedy Central President Kent Alterman said the network took a “big macro look” and started having conversations with Hardwick. He said that everyone looked at the audience numbers and decided to walk away while the show still had a strong showing and while everyone involved was still “full of appreciation and gratitude.” Hardwick and Funny or Die offered similar statements.
@midnight had a tremendous impact on the comedy landscape. In addition to inspiring big social media hashtag numbers nightly, and doing well in the internet video category, the series likely was the inspiration for many new comedian competition series like Joking Off, Comedy Knockout and the new Punchline series.
The show will officially end and celebrate 600 episodes on the same night on August 4th. Deadline implied that there might be talks about rebooting the series in the fall in a new direction. If they do, this will be the second time in just a few months that Comedy Central opted to keep a series in the works without its original creator and host. The first being Ari Shaffir’s This is Not Happening, which will air its new season in the fall with a new host- Roy Wood Jr.
@midnight has been nominated for four Primetime Emmys, winning twice. Meanwhile, Hardwick remains busy with his wildly popular AMC “Talking” series of shows, and just finished producing his first music/comedy festival.
