Chris Hardwick’s @midnight is nearing its end on Comedy Central. According to Deadline, the show will air its final week of episodes from Monday, July 31st through Friday, August 4th, which will mark the 600th and final episode. Here’s what Comedy Central president Kent Alterman said on the decision:
We took a big macro look and we started having conversations with Chris. We feel incredibly proud of the show, we think it’s had an amazing run. How many shows can say that they’d hit 600 episodes? It was a little bit of the audience telling us over time, and we mutually thought, “You know what, maybe we should walk away holding our heads high and proud, full of appreciation and gratitude.â€
And here’s Hardwick’s statement on the news:
@midnight has meant the world to me these last four years. It has been a dream to come to work 600 times to make inappropriate jokes about the Internet with my fellow comedian friends. I could not be more proud of this show, staff and crew and at the end of the day, I think we accomplished everything we wanted to accomplish. Spiritually it just feels like it ran its course — I’m not sure we had many more hashtag games in us (which may actually be a relief to anyone whose Twitter feed gets overrun every night). I owe such a huge debt of gratitude to Comedy Central and Kent for taking a chance on the show, always being great partners and allowing us to exit mutually, which is rarely a gift you are given in this business. I will certainly miss awarding POINTS! to people nightly, so please understand if you see me randomly shouting it at strangers in public after August 4th.
Late night has been through many changes on Comedy Central since @midnight debuted in 2013 – from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show to The Colbert Report to newer shows like The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, The President Show, and The Jim Jefferies Show – and while the network hasn’t officially announced what it plans to do with @midnight’s time slot, Alterman said right now the focus is prepping for Jordan Klepper’s upcoming 11:30pm show. “It’s not a given that this is real estate we will be spending resources on, but if and when we feel that it will be resources well spent, we like its potential, it’s an opportunity down the road,†he said. According to the Deadline report, there’s a possibility that Anthony Atamanuik’s President Show could possibly take over the midnight time slot once a week after Klepper’s show premieres.
600 eps of @midnight! I’m so proud! I’ve nothing but gratitude for @ComedyCentral & YOU for watching/hashtagging :) https://t.co/PBB0R0pIfu
— Chris Hardwick (@hardwick) July 19, 2017