Stephen Colbert Praises Taylor Tomlinson & CBS Execs As ‘After Midnight’ Comes To An End

deadline.com:

Earlier today, it emerged that After Midnight, hosted by Taylor Tomlinson, would be ending after two seasons. The Late Show host Stephen Colbert, who exec produces After Midnight, paid tribute to both Tomlinson and CBS for their efforts on the 12:30am show.

He called Tomlinson, who wants to return to stand-up comedy touring, “incredibly funny”. “Taylor’s decided to return to stand-up full time, and as someone who’s done this job for 20 years, I completely respect her enormously as a comedian, and for making a very hard decision on how to best use her time and her talent,” he said on The Late Show.

Colbert also called out CBS CEO George Cheeks, who is also co-CEO of owner Paramount Global, CBS Entertainment President Amy Reisenbach and CBS Studios President David Stapf for their support on After Midnight. “I just want to say I can’t thank CBS enough for the trust they put in us, in creating the show, their constant support along the way,” he added. “As I’ve said, I’ve been doing this a long time, and you rarely have partners that good, and you’d have to work on one of these shows like we do, to understand all the time and the effort the amazing staff of After Midnight put in to not only launching a new show, but also creating a new form of one of these shows for a late-night time slot.

There should be so proud of the work they did. I certainly am. It’s hard to try something new, and it’s rare for a network to say, ‘We’d like more of that’.” The cancelation of After Midnight – CBS had quietly picked up the show for a third season before Tomlinson’s decision – means that the network is eschewing the 12:30am programming slot.