Late-Night Host Gives Emotional Farewell Monologue During Final Episode

It’s the end of an era for one late-night host.

On Thursday, comedian Taylor Tomlinson said goodbye to After Midnight in an emotional monologue.

It was announced in March that CBS had canceled the panel game show after two seasons, after initially renewing it for Season 3. The decision came after host Tomlinson decided to step away in order to put her focus back on stand-up comedy. At the start of the episode, Tomlinson welcomed the audience to the final episode, which was met with applause and cheering. She said it was an “emotional” night and promised an “amazing show.”

“I’m so grateful that I got a chance to do this,” Tomlinson said. “I never thought that I would be able to host a late-night show. This was never something that was on my vision board at all because I just didn’t think it was possible for me. I’m a touring standup and I feel very grateful to have that career that I do, and this opportunity came along at a time in my life where I could take advantage of it, and, while, unfortunately, I couldn’t keep doing the show, it just wasn’t sustainable for me. I can’t believe that I got to do it as long as I did.”

Despite the third season renewal, CBS decided to cancel it following Tomlinson’s departure, and she said it was her “dream that I would get to finish out this season and hand it off to a new host. I really wanted CBS to replace me, because I just think there are so many amazing comedians who would have done a great job with this show.”

She went on to praise the entire team on After Midnight, crew, and the guests who have appeared, noting “the amount of work that goes into doing a show like this, it’s insane.” After Midnight is a reboot of the late-night panel game show @midnight, which was hosted by Chris Hardwick and ran on Comedy Central from 2013 to 2017. It premiered on CBS in 2024, and Thursday’s finale capped After Midnight at 199 episodes.

“I had no idea how to be on TV every day,” Tomlinson shared. “I had no idea how to do any of this. I had no idea how much work it was to make a late-night show every single day. We didn’t have the budget of a traditional late-night show. Everyone who works here was doing the job of several people… and everybody cared so much.”

After saying how much the experience meant to her, she said one final remark while holding back tears before officially kicking off the championship tournament. “I just want to say on camera, thank you so much to the staff and crew of After Midnight for having me as your host for 200 episodes.”