Trib Total Media TV writer Rob Owen offers a viewing tip for the coming week. HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — When you sign up to attend the taping of a late-night show , you never know what guests you’ll get.
Last month for a taping of CBS’s “After Midnight” (12:35 a.m. weekdays, KDKA-TV), I lucked out and got to see two celebrity panelists with Pittsburgh ties: former “Community” star Gillian Jacobs, a 2000 graduate of Mt.
Lebanon High School, and drag queen Alaska (AKA Justin Andrew Honard), who grew up near Erie and once lived in Pittsburgh and competed on “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” For those unfamiliar, “After Midnight” is CBS’s relatively new, lower-budget replacement for “The Late Late Show with James Corden.” (“After Midnight” launched in January and has been renewed for the 2024-25 TV season.
) Comedian Taylor Tomlinson hosts “After Midnight,” which includes Stephen Colbert among its executive producers. Each episode features a panel of three entertainers who compete for points as they try to win a prize. In reality, the competition is just a pretense for comedic answers and guest interplay.
In the episode I attended, the prize was a pair of pink shorts with the brand name Juicy misspelled Joosi. “After Midnight” films on Stage 29 of the Paramount Pictures lot, a small stage tucked in the venerable studio’s northwestmost corner. The audience numbers less than 100 spectators.
Like most taped-in-front-of-a-studio-audience shows, “After Midni.