Deadline has reported that an all-star team is set to assemble for YouTube’s first late-night talk show. Ben Glieb (The Book Of Life, Ice Age: Continental Drift) is set to join forces with Daily Show alum Stewart Bailey (All Access, Bad Dates With Jameela Jamil). Bailey is a four-time Emmy winner and a two-time Peabody Award winner. Keith Harris, most notably known as the drummer for The Black Eyed Peas, will take on the role of band leader and musical director. Shows will be recorded a day before airing on Glieb’s YouTube channel, which currently has 2.9 million subscribers. The show will film in front of both a live and the first-ever virtual studio audience.
The show is set to break late-night convention and bring in guests from outside pop culture, including thought leaders, AI experts, and more. The show will debut ahead of what was previously thought to be the first YouTube talk show, Outside Tonight with Julian Shapiro-Barnum (Celebrity Substitute, Recess Therapy).
Late-night television appears to be undergoing an overhaul as main industry stalwarts are coming to an end, the most prominent being The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. CBS is preparing to end two other longtime franchises, After Midnight and The Late Late Show. Additionally, Jimmy Kimmel Live! faced brief suspension due to comments about Charlie Kirk’s alleged shooter. Kimmel has now found himself in hot water with the president yet again after ill-timed comments in which he said Melania Trump had the “glow of an expectant widow” directly preceding the most recent assassination attempt on her husband.
According to mxdwn, this marks YouTube’s latest incursion into traditional television space. Last year, YouTube TV, faced carriage negotiations that led to several networks being pulled from the service for period. Many of the networks argued that YouTube TV was a hostile negotiating partner, given its position as a Google subsidiary, which gave it unfair leverage.
Gleib has made his living as a comedian, actor, and late-night host. His prominent work was as the host, head writer, and co-executive producer of the game show Idiotest. The series ran for 210 episodes on the Game Show Network. Additionally, Glieb has made numerous television appearances and created a massive online presence. His videos have been viewed more than a billion times. As a stand-up comedian, he has headlined specials such as The Mad King and Neurotic Gangster.