Tomlinson Take-Over: Taylor Tomlinson Set to Deliver Laughs as Youngest Ever Late-Night TV Host

Taylor Tomlinson was announced as the latest addition to the esteemed roster of late-night hosts, a position historically and predominantly held by male comedians. 

The news came this Wednesday from the new late-night show’s executive producer, Stephen Colbert, during an airing of The Late Show, where Tomlinson stepped up from the audience to accept the role to cheers and applause. 

Tomlinson rose to widespread acclaim as a younger millennial comic, and has, since the success of her two Netflix specials, Quarter-Life Crisis and Look at You, earned her post as the youngest ever host of a late-night show on network television. She relates to her audiences through hilarious existentialist humor, with the late-night crowd sure to delight in her antics as they drift off to sleep.

Titled After Midnight, the new CBS show pays homage in both form and content to its predecessor, @midnight, a former game show on Comedy Central which ran for four seasons. Taylor Tomlinson’s After Midnight will air following The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, filling in the coveted time spot once occupied by The Late Late Show With James Corden, a welcome departure amidst claims of blatant bad behavior and multiple displays of off-color comedy from the show’s host.

Audiences can expect to tune into After Midnight in early 2024, as the only network late-night program featuring a female host. With Netflix signing Tomlinson on for two more specials to premiere on the streaming platform, this major next step in Tomlinson’s career is sure to launch her among the likes of the many great late-night pioneers of her gender who have come before, such as Amber Ruffin, Samantha Bee, Chelsea Handler, Michelle Wolf, and Joan Rivers herself. However, a long-standing tenured run on the illustrious late-night slot has yet to be seen by any female comedian to date: the country would sooner have a female president than a funny woman in charge of their evening entertainment (this is a joke…or is it?).

Tapped as head writer for the show, as per The Hollywood Reporter, is the incomparable and comically awkward Jo Firestone (Teenage Euthanasia), whose delightful whimsy will pair well with Tomlinson’s poignant and pointed style of comedy, complementing her starkly honest, yet effectually warm, take on life.