“We’ll need someone who is, I don’t know, fun, likable, young, in touch with online trends and available every night of the week,” he said during his show Wednesday.
Tomlinson, conveniently sitting in the front row as part of the bit, then sheepishly volunteered herself to join the cadre of late-night network television hosts, which includes Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel. After Colbert’s audience approved the new hire with applause, Tomlinson joined Colbert onstage to talk about her new role.
“After Midnight” was inspired by the internet-themed game show “@Midnight” that aired after “The Colbert Report” from 2013 to 2017, a CBS news release stated. The new show will fill the 12:37 a.m. time slot vacated by James Corden when “The Late Late Show” ended in April.
Tomlinson said on “Stephen Colbert” that she was most excited about having her first “real job” since starting stand-up comedy at 16 years old. During her interview, Colbert showed a screenshot from the Tuesday night Zoom when he first told Tomlinson that she had gotten the gig, her eyes wide and mouth agape on the teleconference screen.
In addition to soon being the only woman on the late-night circuit, she’ll also be the youngest.
“I’m 29, so if you don’t know who I am, don’t worry,” she said. “I barely know myself.”
Similar to Lilly Singh, who was the last woman to helm a late-night show on network television from 2019 to 2021, Tomlinson’s comedy sketches gained traction on social media. Tomlinson now has more than 2.5 million followers on TikTok, where clips of her sets on dating as a 20-something and mental health rack up hundreds of thousands of views.
This month, she’s finishing her “Have It All” national stand-up tour. She’s starred in two Netflix specials: “Quarter-Life Crisis” in 2020 and “Look at You” last year, and was a finalist on NBC’s competition show “Last Comic Standing” in 2015.
Tomlinson’s new role comes as something of an early birthday present, as she said she’s turning 30 on Saturday.