Last Thursday, CBS aired the final episode of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.” This Thursday, the first-ever creator-led late night show premiered on YouTube. It’s an almost too-on-the-nose example of what the future of this medium may look like.
“Our tagline is the evolution of late night is here,” Ben Gleib, the host of “Good Night with Ben Glieb,” told TheWrap.
That’s not just a slogan for the 47-year-old comedian. During its first episode, “Good Night” featured several staples associated with the late night format: a house band (led by Keith Harris of the Black Eyed Peas), an opening monologue from Gleib, a desk interview with a celebrity (filmmaker and podcaster Kevin Smith), two pretaped man-on-the-street segments and a roundtable interview with two of Gleib’s guests (comedians Zainab Johnsonn and Brent Pella).
But woven between those tried-and-true moments were flourishes that could only be expected from the YouTube age. Instead of an expansive and cold studio, Gleib films his show from a repurposed segment of his home. Though there were a handful of audience members watching Thursday’s show in person, a projector to the side of Gleib showed a wall of people who had digitally purchased a ticket and were watching the premiere live before it was posted on YouTube Friday. Smith’s interview wasn’t the typical seven to 10 minutes you may expect from “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” or “Late Night with Seth Meyers;” instead it ran for half an hour, a conversational runtime more similar to a podcast episode than a broadcast TV show. Later Smith was joined author Max Lugavere for an even longer discussion with Gleib. And when the episode ended, Gleib led his makeshift studio into another part of his house, a move straight from the livestreaming playbook that gave his audience a behind-the-curtain look into both his late night show and the following afterparty.
“We’re trying to really honor the history of the format and also take it to brand new levels. It’s going to be uncensored, and we’re going to cuss a lot,” Gleib said.
“Good Night” didn’t come from nowhere. The late night series is showrun and executive produced by Stewart Bailey, a late night veteran known for “The Daily Show,” “Last Call with Carson Daly” and the shortlived but culture-changing “The Jon Stewart Show.” Nikki Glaser and Scott Galloway are also supporters of the show and are set to appear in future episodes.
“There’s a freedom with being independent that I feel working with [‘Good Night’] that I haven’t felt in a while,” Bailey told TheWrap. “There aren’t any allegiances or bridges we can burn because we are starting from scratch.”
For Bailey, “Good Night” is a reminder of why he was drawn to late night in the first place. As a mainstay in the comedy scene, Bailey worked with Gleib for years and has long been impressed with both his comedic wit and his ability to improvise with the crowd on the spot. The two also share a deep love for one late night star in particular.
“We both were inspired by early Letterman in the ’80s. That’s why I got into late night,” Bailey said. “I didn’t even get a lot of the jokes, but I loved the tone and irony of it.”
So when Gleib contacted Bailey about making his lifelong dream of hosting a late night show a reality, he jumped at the chance. “It’s not that I’m going backwards. I’m really just returning to the freedom of rolling up your shirt sleeves and making a show,” Bailey said.
“You can’t, historically, ever get a late night show unless you are offered one, but the landscape changed. YouTube became the most powerful entertainment platform on the planet and I realized I could just give myself my dream,” Gleib said. “I’ve been developing and crafting it in my mind for a full five years.”
There’s another major reason why both Gleib and Bailey were drawn to YouTube. Because this team is creating their show from the ground up, they don’t have to answer to any network executives or corporate demands, insights that can put intense pressure on talent and stifle creativity.
“For the first time in late night, we’re going to offer real value to the audience by booking — alongside celebrities — guests who could really change their lives: thought leaders, changemakers, experts,” Gleib said, noting that because this show will live on YouTube, it will be easier than ever for audiences to check out his guests’ work. “Also, it’s much richer for me to make comedy out the canvas of the whole world and not having to ask Chris Hemsworth for the 15th time about if [Thor’s] hammer is still heavy.”
“When you’re making a show on YouTube, you’re writing basically because you believe in something, not because you think it’s going to test well or be a ratings juggernaut,” Bailey said. “We don’t have to entertain millions. I’d love to get to that point with Ben, and I do think that’s a possibility for us, but that pressure can be crippling. So there’s a freedom with trying to build from the ground up that reminds you what you loved about it in the first place.”
There’s also a dedication to flexibility when it comes to “Good Night.” As the show’s audience and the team evolve, Gleib and Bailey expect the series will change. That degree of adaptability is something late night staples can’t easily copy.
“I plan for this show to be a living, breathing document. I want it to evolve week to week. We are going to be experimenting with length, format, segment types, the level of interactivity, camera angles, lighting — all the things we can to keep adding different spices to this recipe until it feels right,” Gleib said. “I think it’ll evolve forever.”
“We’ve preached the mentality that if something does go [technically] wrong, we embrace it,” Bailey said. “It’s part of the vibe of the show, which is if you’ve got a ragtag crew, it’s gonna look raggedy at times.”
One episode in, “Good Night” is still figuring itself out. But Gleib hopes that his show may inspire “thousands of people” to take the leap and try out their own independently made shows.
“I can’t wait for the moment when David Letterman — one of my heroes and idols — or Stephen Colbert or Jimmy Kimmel or Arsenio Hall or Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien are sitting on the chair next to me at my desk in my home studio and embracing what we’re doing to honor the format that they created so masterfully,” Gleib said. “I really hope that I make them proud.”
New episodes of “Good Night with Ben Gleib” premiere Fridays on YouTube
