Barely a year after it was launched, CBS has canceled After Midnight hosted by Taylor Tomlinson. According to Variety, CBS has no plans to replace the show with original programming, as many Paramount executives are worried about running “up more costs.”
Still, executive producer and fellow CBS late night host Stephen Colbert said in a statement the decision was Tomlinson’s, “While we were excited and grateful for our third season to start in the fall, we respect Taylor’s decision to return to stand-up full time.”
Last month Tomlinson had told SXSW that taking the job was a difficult one because it would mean less time on tour.
After Midnight was supposed to be a different kind of late night comedy show. For diversity-conscious liberals and industry insiders, that was seen in Tomlinson being the only woman among the permanent septet. For people who just want jokes, After Midnight was a reboot of Comedy Central’s @Midnight where improv games replaced the traditional talk show format. At one point in her career, Tomlinson even claimed to stay away from politics because she was not qualified to speak about them, “I’m just very like — what’s going on in my life right now? What, in my experience and personally, do I feel like I have some authority to talk about?”
However, about halfway through 2024, After Midnight started employing a traditional monologue at the beginning of the show, and Tomlinson got more political.
Her most common bit has been trying to help turn alleged terrorist and CEO assassin Luigi Mangione into a sex symbol. One time she referred to his victim, Brian Thompson, as “whose name was—he's not hot, so I don't remember.”
Speaking of sex, another Tomlinson moment came after the VP debate between JD Vance and Tim Walz. The rules of the debate stipulated the moderators would not fact-check the candidates, but CBS colleague Margaret Brennan ignored those rules to issue a questionable fact-check of Vance’s take on the CBP One app. Brennan also tried to dunk on Vance by claiming she couldn’t hear him because they cut his mic. Tomlinson reacted, “And before anyone asks, yes, I masturbated to this. A woman, silencing men? Yeah, that's going in the spank bank.”
Tomlinson has also seemingly displayed an urge to move beyond her conservative Christian upbringing. While her career started with church performances, she has since sought to leave that form of comedy behind. At CBS, she would encourage contestants to belittle Jesus and the Catholic Church.
After Trump won in November, Tomlinson mourned, “A lot of people want solutions, so they're posting today about what we can do to move forward. And I think that's valuable. But also, let's have a [bleep] second to be sad. It's all right. You know. If your friend dies, you go to the funeral and say, 'I really miss my friend.' You don't go to the funeral and immediately scream, 'Volunteer at the library!' Like yes, okay, I'll volunteer at the library, but let me bury democracy first.”
Tomlinson consistently got fewer viewers than fellow 12:37 slot host, NBC's Seth Meyers. After Midnight’s series finale will take place sometime in June.
