CNN Wants Jon Stewart or Bill Maher to Be Its ‘Gutfeld!’

Oh man, Greg Gutfeld is absolutely going to feast on the report that the king of late night before, the Fox News comedy commentator surely will now. 

The CNN comedy show is the brainchild of new head honcho Chris Licht, formerly the producer of Trevor Noah (though why he’d want to do this gig again makes no sense). 

Comedy at CNN? Why, exactly? And why now? Gutfeld's success is an obvious inspiration. Look at it as part of Licht’s blueprint to transform CNN from its hyper-partisan Trump years into a channel with broader appeal. Rather than simply going for a bigger slice of the news pie, Licht’s plan would not only grab liberal news junkies from MSNBC but also swipe viewers from outlets like HGTV, ESPN, and Netflix. 

That all sounds like great strategy except … has Licht gotten the memo that late-night comedy is in trouble? Media analyst and late-night historian Bill Carter recently sounded the alarm, ironically James Corden version of CBS’s Late Late Show will be revamped with dramatically lower budgets. If Licht is looking for a savior, he’s picking an odd one in late-night comedy.

But he’s not the only one. Rumor has it that Late Night with Seth Meyers might be on the move to MSNBC, another example of a goofy talk show taking over the news. Does this mean all of our cable news channels are destined to become comedy platforms? Given that many Americans considered Stewart’s Daily Show their main source of news anyway, we’re likely only heading toward the inevitable. We can hear Gutfeld gloating already.