Since this week, the United States has a woman among the small group of drivers of the late night. At only 30 years old, Taylor Tomlinson has occupied the space left by the British James Corden on CBS since Tuesday and joins the television genre represented by comedians Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. Tomlinson represents a generational change on the grid and is the network’s commitment to retaining young people, a segment of the population that prefers to spend their nights on social networks than in front of the small screen.
In the first broadcast of After Midnight, Tomlinson asked his three guests if they had seen the Emmys. The host attended the awards ceremony and used the red carpet to promote the launch of her program. None of the three saw the gala. “No one saw them? Is television dead? Magnificent! In the first show…”, the comedian joked.
Tomlinson is considered a rising star of American comedy. She has two specials on Netflix and has been embraced in the medium by some of the most respected members of the stand up, like Neal Brennan, the writer of Dave Chappelle’s TV show in the ’90s, and Pete Holmes. In addition, the performer is a frequent guest on the popular podcast circuit, which keeps her current on social networks.
CBS has made it clear that it intends to use the space to renew the traditional formula of late night. The first program, broadcast at 12:37 a.m. on Wednesday, featured a contest format instead of the usual monologue of political mockery and the traditional couch where celebrities sit to tell jokes and promote launches. After Midnight It depends on the reflexes and quick response of the guest comedians. The network has called it the show “smarter about the stupidest things on the internet.”
Not only the format is innovative. Also the profile of Tomlinson, who defined himself in a recent interview with The New York Times as an introvert who avoids large groups of people. She grew up in a traditional Methodist family in San Diego, a conservative city in southern California. Her mother died when she was young and her father remarried just 10 months after being widowed.
His father, to whom Tomlinson stopped speaking last year, is one of the most recurring figures in his humor. The man is partly responsible for his daughter’s career. It was he who took her for the first time to a stand-up comedy class, a class that he took with her in a very particular place, a Christian congregation church.
It was in one of those classes where Tomlinson was in front of an audience for the first time to make them laugh. He was 16 years old. He closed the event, snatching from his father the most coveted position on the modest poster witnessed by 40 spectators. He began touring churches across the country, until a tweet in which he made a joke about fucking closed the doors of that circuit for him.
That was the least of it. At age 23, Tomlinson had already been invited by Conan O’Brien to his show to do a monologue. She participated in contests among comedians, her name was included in the lists of talents to follow and she even received an offer to develop a television program. Her first big hit, however, came with 15 minutes she did for a Netflix comedy special in 2018. Her first special was released on the platform in 2020 under the name Quarter-Life Crisis. Two years later, the streaming giant released the second, Look at you.
Tomlinson is now the only woman in a male-dominated schedule (she may remain alone unless Comedy Central chooses one to fill the vacancy left by Trevor Noah in The Daily Show). Seth Myers, from the school of Saturday Night Live and NBC late night host, is his main rival on the strip. The biggest challenge, however, will be the consumption habits of American viewers. In recent years, chains have decided to cancel other late night headed by women, including the broadcasts of Samantha Bee, Ziwe and Amber Ruffin (the last two black comedians). None of these had occupied a chair in an open chain.
Tomlinson’s closest reference is probably Joan Rivers, who in 1986 was in charge of a late show for the first time. Who died in 2014, the comedian paved the way on Fox, many years before the network took a turn and became the sounding board for the most conservative right. Decades later, a comedian who began her career in churches reaches one of the most important waves again. But Tomlinson is different. She doesn’t make political jokes.