Bill Maher is joining CNN’s lineup.
CNN will air the after-show segments of Bill Maher’s HBO show on Friday nights.
CNN is adding comedian Bill Maher to its Friday night lineup. Starting this Friday at 11:30pm ET, the network will begin airing segments of Overtime, the after-show segment of Maher’s weekly HBO late-night show, Real Time with Bill Maher, during CNN Tonight. HBO and CNN share a parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The news, first reported by the Los Angeles Times, comes as Puck earlier this month reported on discussions around CNN using Maher’s post-show segments, which had previously only aired on YouTube.
Maher’s addition follows reporting that CNN CEO Chris Licht is considering a comedian to host one of its prime time shows. CNN has been without a permanent host for its 9pm hour ever since Chris Cuomo got fired at the end of 2021, and its 10pm hour since October, when Don Lemon moved to mornings; Alisyn Camerota has been filling in for Lemon, and Laura Coates has been hosting an 11pm show. CNN executives have apparently floated Maher, Trevor Noah, and Jon Stewart as all possible “news entertainment” personalities to fill the void, per Semafor’s Max Tani. “Executives have also discussed turning the 9 pm to 12 am hours into a series of shows modeled like a variety program,” Tani reported. Licht, who came to CNN after six years as the executive producer of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has dismissed the idea that he’s looking to simply plop a late-night comedian in CNN’s empty prime-time chair. “I worked on a comedy show. And it took over 200 people to produce an actual comedy show. So no, I would not be so foolish as to, in one fell swoop, hurt the brand of comedy and news by trying to do a comedy show on CNN,” Licht told the LA Times’ Stephen Battaglio in an interview published Monday. Instead, Licht said, he’s in talks “with culturally relevant individuals from the worlds of entertainment, sports and comedy who can bring fresh and unique perspectives to the news” and “help broaden the appeal of our prime time.”
Prominent left-wingers attacked Bill Maher.
He was even accused of “propping up right-wing culture war talking points” despite him being a liberal.
So Bill Maher's leftovers will run on @cnn Friday night. As a veteran guest on that show – not that this is going to top the CNN 92k demo rating average – what about the profanity? pic.twitter.com/P4vDIWVVdt
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) January 30, 2023
To be clear: I'm not saying no one is ever 'canceled' or that there's no censorship; I'm saying that the right-wing, reactionary white men who shout loudest about it almost always seem to do fine themselves.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) January 30, 2023
Bill Maher is actually perfect for CNN to be honest. False equivalencies, propping up right-wing culture war talking points, fighting for the status quo and that smug face. Tapper might get jealous because he might be outsmugged.
— Cenk Uygur (@cenkuygur) January 30, 2023
“1619 Project” founder Nikole Hannah-Jones also attacked Maher.
“1619 Project” founder and critical race theory (CRT) proponent Nikole Hannah-Jones addressed Maher directly on Twitter. “Bill, you’ve obviously never read the #1619Project,” Wells wrote, challenging a statement that Maher made in a recent conversation with actor Bryan Cranston on his podcast.
“[I]f you mean more what the 1619 book says, which is that it’s just the essence of America and that we are irredeemable, that’s just wrong,” Maher said, pushing back on teaching CRT in school.
Anyone who even questions the left’s narratives gets attacked – even Liberals!
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