Attention fans of the internet: #HashtagWars, Rapid Refresh and Sweet Emoji moments are here to stay. Comedy Central has renewed the Emmy®-nominated "@midnight" for a second season, it was announced today by Kent Alterman, President, Content Development and Original Programming, Comedy Central. The renewal of the #1 brand in comedy's late-night hit series, hosted by Chris Hardwick and produced by Funny Or Die, is for a 40-week season that will air throughout 2015.
"People always ask me when '@midnight' airs," said Alterman.
"'@midnight' has been an absolute dream come true for me-a game show of internet jokes with my comedian friends," added Hardwick. "I cannot thank Comedy Central enough for letting us continue. If they hadn't, you can damn well BET that I would have forced people to come over to my house to play it anyway, for no audience, so everyone is thankful we dodged that bullet."
"@midnight" airs Monday-Thursday after "The Colbert Report" and is executive produced by Hardwick, Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant; Mike Farah for Funny Or Die; Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler and Jon Zimelis of Serious Business; showrunner Jack Martin; and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners. Funny Or Die's Joe Farrell serves as a Co-Executive Producer. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.
"@midnight" leads viewers down the ultimate internet wormhole with a rotating lineup of today's top comedians battling nightly to determine who has the funniest take on the day's social media and pop culture. Using social media as the catalyst and a fake game show as the setting, "@midnight" challenges comedians to win the Internet by slashing the craziest, most absurd news and posts that social media has to offer: from the latest celebrity Instagram shots to the creepiest Craigslist posting to Buzzspeed lists and infamous #HashtagWars.
Dominating the social media landscape in the late-night arena and receiving a 2014 Emmy® nomination for "Outstanding Interactive Program," "@midnight" boasts the highest social engagement among all of the late night series, garnering more than 5 million mentions since its premiere in January and generating over 10 billion impressions. Averaging over 200,000 weekly online mentions, the show's signature #HashtagWars have taken Twitter by storm, topping Twitter's Trending Topics nationally and worldwide on a nightly basis (source: Nielsen Social Guide All Network Types/Late Fringe/All Series/Live or New 2014). On-air the series is averaging 769,000 total viewers each night and ranks #4 in all of late night with People 18-34, Men 18-34, People 18-24, Men 18-24. "@midnight" also reaches the youngest (median age: 32 years) and most male (68%) audience of any late night talk show. (source: Nielsen Media Research, Season 1 (1/6/14-7/27/14), most current, premieres only; median age based on P2+; ranks based on impressions)
