Taylor Tomlinson, the religious comedian who has taken over James Corden’s late-night time slot

As of this week, the United States has a woman in its small group of late-night hosts. On Tuesday, Taylor Tomlinson became the host of the show replacing the Late Late Show with James Corden on CBS. At only 30 years old, she has joined the television genre featuring comedians Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel. Tomlinson represents a generational change in the field and reflects the network’s effort to retain young people, a segment of the population that prefers to spend their nights on social media rather than in front of the TV.

On the first broadcast of After Midnight, Tomlinson asked her three guests if they had seen the Emmys. The host attended the awards show and used the red carpet to promote her show’s debut. None of the three had watched the Emmys. “Nobody saw them. Is television dead? Great! On my first show...,” the comedian joked.

Tomlinson is considered to be a rising star in American comedy. She has two Netflix specials under her belt and has been embraced in the medium by some of the most respected comedians, including Neal Brennan, a writer on Dave Chappelle’s 1990s TV show, and Pete Holmes. In addition, the new late-night host is a frequent guest on the popular podcast circuit, which keeps her relevant on social media.

CBS has made it clear that it intends to use the space to revamp the traditional late-night formula. The first show aired at 12:37 a.m. on Wednesday and featured a quiz format instead of the usual monologue of political mockery and the traditional couch where celebrities sit to tell jokes and promote their latest projects. After Midnight relies on the guest comedians’ reflexes and quick responses. The network has called it the “smartest show about the stupidest things on the internet.”

It’s not just the format that is innovative. So is Tomlinson’s profile. In a recent interview with The New York Times, she described herself as an introvert who shies away from large groups of people. She grew up in a traditional Methodist family in conservative San Diego, California. Her mother died when she was young, and her father remarried only 10 months after he became a widow.

Her father, whom Tomlinson stopped speaking to last year, is one of the most recurring figures in her humor. The man is partly responsible for his daughter’s career. He was the one who first took her to a comedy class at a congregational Christian church.

It was in one of those classes that Tomlinson first stood in front of an audience to make them laugh. She was 16 years old at the time. She got the closing slot of the event, snatching from her father the most coveted spot on the modest lineup in front of 40 spectators. She began touring churches across the country, until a tweet in which she joked about sex forced her off the circuit.

That was the least of it. By the age of 23, Tomlinson had already been invited by Conan O’Brien to his show to perform a set. She has participated in competitions among comedians, her name has been included on the lists of major talents to follow and she even received an offer to develop a television show. But her first big success came with her 15-minute Netflix comedy special in 2018. Her first full special, Quarter-Life Crisis, premiered on the same platform in 2020. Two years later, the streaming giant released her second comedy special, Look at You.

Tomlinson is now the only woman in a male-dominated time slot (she may remain alone unless Comedy Central picks a woman to replace Trevor Noah on The Daily Show). Seth Myers, formerly of Saturday Night Live and the current host of NBC’s late-night show, is her main rival in the time slot. Her biggest challenge, however, will be the viewing habits of U.S. viewers. In recent years, the networks have decided to cancel other female-led late-night shows, including those of Samantha Bee, Ziwe and Amber Ruffin (the latter two are black female comedians). And none of their shows were on broadcast television.

Tomlinson’s closest parallel is probably Joan Rivers, who hosted a late-night show for the first time in 1986. The comedian, who died in 2014, led the way at Fox, many years before the network changed direction and became an echo chamber for the Right. Decades later, a female comedian —who began her career in churches— is once again hosting a late-night show on broadcast television. But Tomlinson is different. She doesn’t do political jokes.

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