Ever since Chris Licht took over as the big boss at CNN last April, one of the big questions he faced was: What to do about prime time?
He had an opening at the coveted 9 p.m. Eastern slot because Chris Cuomo had been let go a few months earlier. Then another piece of prime-time real estate — the 10 p.m. Eastern hour — opened up late last year when host Don Lemon was shifted to a revamped morning show.
Both prime-time slots remain without permanent hosts.
For the past couple of months, there have been rumors that Licht — the former showrunner of “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” — was thinking about filling one of those prime-time spots with a comedian. You know, someone who could combine news and humor the way Jon Stewart or Trevor Noah used to on Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” or how John Oliver does on HBO’s “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.” In fact, those names, and others, have been floated as possible CNN hosts.
Semafor’s Max Tani recently wrote about CNN’s consideration of a comedian in prime time, writing, “The discussions are aimed at turning away from the competition with MSNBC for liberal news junkies, and toward pulling viewers from HGTV, ESPN, and Netflix. Licht has also attempted to pitch CNN as a potential gateway to other brands within Warner Discovery, reminding talent that the company is attached to HBO and Warner Brothers, where there could be further opportunities for projects.”
Well, now it seems as if CNN is going to dip its toes into the comedy world. On Monday, the network announced that the online, post-show segment of Bill Maher’s HBO show will now air Friday nights at 11:30 on CNN. “Overtime” is the post-show segment of “Real Time with Bill Maher” and is a continuation of the panel discussion and viewer questions and answers following each week’s episode of “Real Time.”
“Overtime” will air weekly on CNN starting this Friday.
“Real Time” is in its 21st season, and is more comedy than straight news with monologue bits and panel discussions. It’s just that current events and politics are the topics of the monologues and discussions. Maher, who has done stand-up comedy heavy on political satire, considers himself a liberal, but often crosses political lines in his criticisms. He often makes enemies of both Democrats and Republicans. So who knows how it will play to CNN audiences?
His HBO show runs multiple times during the week, so viewership numbers can fluctuate, but the Friday night debut usually is a tad under a million viewers. The weekly numbers are, obviously, more than that. Will the HBO audience follow Maher to CNN? And will Maher attract new viewers at CNN? And could this lead to more appearances by Maher on CNN?
Is he a cutting-edge satirist, as some maintain? Or has he turned into a grumpy old man, an opinion to which others subscribe?
All remains to be seen.
The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Weprin smartly points out, “And while ‘Overtime’ is more of a comedy show than a news show, it won’t really find itself in any meaningful competition with the other late night programs (including CNN CEO Chris Licht’s last TV home as executive producer of CBS’ Late Show). With Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel almost always running reruns on Friday nights, there might be an opening for something original at 11:30 p.m.”
Is it a trial run to see how comedy might fit into CNN’s prime-time programming? Well, not so fast.
In an interview with The Los Angeles Times’ Stephen Battaglio, Licht said, “No. I worked on a comedy show. And it took over 200 people to produce an actual comedy show. So no, I would not be so foolish as to, in one fell swoop, hurt the brand of comedy and news by trying to do a comedy show on CNN.”
Licht told Battaglio, “I’m casting a wide net to help broaden the appeal of our prime time. But at the same time, I can’t offend our core audience of news junkies. I would never do anything that would hurt the brand and reputation that we’re working so hard to restore.”
Might that include comedians in prime time? Licht said, “We are in conversations with culturally relevant individuals from the worlds of entertainment, sports and comedy who can bring fresh and unique perspectives to the news.”
