David Spade is returning to late-night TV, in a bid from Comedy Central that will shake up the way the network does business around midnight.David Spade, the comedian once famous for delivering the “Hollywood Minute” during the “Weekend Update” segment on “Saturday Night Live,” will devote considerably more time going forward to the Viacom-owned network, where he will later this year launch a new late-night series that will follow the network’s flagship “Daily Show.” At 11:30, Spade will go head to head with opening monologues from NBC’s Jimmy Fallon, CBS’ Stephen Colbert and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel.

The series marks the first time in years the network hasn’t sought to follow “The Daily Show” with talent that initially came to light in that landmark program. In recent years, Comedy Central has stocked 11:30 with Stephen Colbert, Larry Wilmore and Jordan Klepper, all of whom first rose to greater renown interacting with either former “Daily” host Jon Stewart or current one Trevor Noah.

It’s also the first time that Comedy Central won’t deliberately set out to focus on political themes and national affairs in the time slot (to be sure, the social-media centered “@midnight” took up residence there for a while). The network found great success with the long-running “The Colbert Report,” which aired after Jon Stewart’s “Daily Show” between 2005 and 2014. Since that time, however, Comedy Central has had less luck.


Two other 11:30 p.m. programs, “The Nightly Show” and, more recently, “The Opposition,” did not prove sustainable despite positive notices for each.Spade is expected to focus on other areas of discussion, offering a “signature take on the pop culture news of the day,” according to the network. The program, which yet to be titled and will include a rotating group of celebrities and comedians. With this choice, Spade and Comedy Central will be moving against the current grain. Many of the newest offerings in late-night tend to center around national news and a news cycle driven by President Donald Trump.

“Lights Out With David Spade,” which halted production last month due to the coronavirus pandemic, will not return to Comedy Central, Variety has learned. Instead, the ViacomCBS-owned brand is preparing to shop the late-night talker — which it produces through its Comedy Central Productions — to outside networks and platforms.

The move comes as Comedy Central has experienced both a massive influx in viewers and disruption to its programming pipeline amid the pandemic.

“Lights Out” premiered last year on Comedy Central in the 11:30 p.m. time slot following “The Daily Show With Trevor Noah.” Spade, one of the biggest stars to emerge from “Saturday Night Live” in the 1990s, brought an established comedic voice to a spot on the schedule that Comedy Central has struggled to find success in since the end in 2014 of “The Colbert Report” with Stephen Colbert. But “Lights Out” ultimately didn’t deliver audiences that lived up to network hopes. The show’s first season had been slated to run through June.

A production shutdown prompted by the coronavirus pandemic effectively ended the possibility of growing the audience for the show, which Comedy Central remains enthusiastic about creatively. Spade has, since then, been producing a digital version of the show from home, which Comedy Central will continue to mount on its non-linear platforms for the next few weeks. As evidence of the regard that the company holds for Spade and the strength of its relationship with him, it will partner with the comic and his team to pursue an outside buyer for “Lights Out” at a time when a rapidly growing number of platforms are looking for programming.