by The comedy game show that earned “POINTS!” for its comedians by mocking memes and daily headlines will end its run on Comedy Central after 600 episodes.
@midnight with Chris Hardwick debuted Oct. 21, 2013, in a trial run for Comedy Central, and earned not only multiple renewals, but also multiple Emmy nominations and Emmy awards for taking over Twitter with its Hashtag Games. The show won the Creative Arts Emmy in 2015 and 2016 for Outstanding Creative Achievement In Interactive Media Social TV Experience. It had been airing at 11:30 p.m. Eastern/Pacific, ending at midnight instead of starting then, on most weeknights in the past year since Comedy Central had cancelled The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
Hardwick Tweeted out last night: “600 eps of @midnight! I’m so proud! I’ve nothing but gratitude for @ComedyCentral & YOU for watching/hashtagging :)”
Co-creator Alex Blagg wrote to friends and followers on Facebook: “We did a bunch of shows with tons of dumb jokes and had lots of fun and made so many friends. Would recommend. 4/5 stars (bathrooms were gross)”
@midnight’s final week of new episodes will end Friday, Aug. 4, 2017, when the show hits episode #600.
Deadline first reported the news, with Comedy Central Kent Alterman telling the site that the network and production company Funny or Die made the decision mutually to end @midnight this summer.
“We took a big macro look and we started having conversations with Chris,” Alterman told Deadline. “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’.”
Former Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper will take over the post-Daily Show time slot with his own nightly talk show. The network has announced no plans yet for its after-midnight programming come fall.
