Chris Hardwick is Comedy Central’s newest late night host. The comedian/podcaster is set to host an untitled show that will begin airing Monday-Thursday at 12am following The Colbert Report this fall, Deadline reports. Funny or Die will produce alongside Hardwick’s own company, Nerdist Industries. The State and Reno 911! alumni Tom Lennon and Ben Garant will serve as showrunners and executive producers on the series, which is the most exciting and surprising thing about the show. It’s described as “a comedic panel show that will have a heavy social-media presence integrated throughout.” Hardwick’s series will face off directly with TBS’s new late night show, a post-Conan series hosted by Pete Holmes (who has a podcast on Hardwick’s Nerdist network) that launches in July.
The Hardwick series is Comedy Central’s first-ever nightly 12am show. Last year, they produced a pilot for one called Nightcap, hosted by the absurdly talented Paul F. Tompkins, which they didn’t order to series. It’s sort of a bummer that the slot is going to someone who already has two shows on the air rather than a comedian who doesn’t have one, but Hardwick, Lennon, and Garant are funny guys who are plenty capable of coming up with an interesting addition to Comedy Central’s late night block. This will be the third TV show Chris Hardwick is currently hosting, in addition to Nerdist on BBC America and Talking Dead on AMC, which has to be some kind of a record (not to mention he has his own YouTube channel and podcast network).
