Charlamagne Tha God’s late-night present has been rebranded with a brand new title, government producer and format — however its focus stays the identical.
The sequence, airing Thursdays (11:30 p.m.) on Comedy Central, premiered final September as “Tha God Honest Truth” and featured sketches, social experiments and A-list visitors, together with Vice President Kamala Harris.
It’s again now as “Comedy Central’s Hell of A Week with Charlamagne Tha God,” with Josh Lieb, a former government producer of “The Day by day Present with Jon Stewart,” introduced on board to assist steer the ship.
Charlamagne (aka Lenard McKelvey) — a radio Corridor of Famer who co-hosts the nationally syndicated “The Breakfast Club” on Power 105.1 with DJ Envy and Angela Yee — spoke to The Submit about “Hell of A Week” and about its mission going ahead.
Why was the present rebranded?
The rebrand is actually as a result of that’s what company needed. They do these focus teams and analysis teams and testings … “Hell of a Week” reads extra like a weekly late-night speak present than “Tha God’s Sincere Reality.” I’m at all times a pupil and attempting to study and I’m additionally attempting to win — so if the community involves me and says, “We predict that with a tweak like this extra viewers will come to the present and notice it’s a weekly late-night speak present” … I’m gonna belief the specialists.
Will the give attention to a panel format affect the best way you host the present?
“I really suppose [the panel format] makes me looser as a result of I actually do take pleasure in conversations in a group and I really like … exchanging concepts and debating. I by no means need my perspective to be the one perspective; I would like different individuals’s enter and debate. That’s the place you get quite a lot of training generally, and I feel it will likely be extra useful for me and for the viewers at house.
Was Josh Lieb introduced on to take the present in a unique route?
No. I imply, in Season 1 we talked concerning the decrackerfication of America, and I feel that if a community goes to allow you to discuss that, which is principally what I feel can be America’s model of denazification — and to say “cracker” like 75 instances in a single episode — I don’t suppose they’re going to censor you an excessive amount of. Josh is an added asset to the crew and we’ve got such a terrific inventive crew already, together with my showrunner, Rachael Edwards, who’s unbelievable at what she does. I’m a agency believer that if [the network] desires any such present, you must be in enterprise with somebody who’s already performed it — and Josh has [won] seven Emmys with “The Day by day Present.” So I feel his resume speaks for itself; the present wasn’t essentially missing something — Josh is only a welcome addition.
Are there basic variations between working and radio and tv?
You at all times should be your true, genuine self, which is the number-one factor whenever you’re on any of those platforms, as a result of no person on the market can do what you do. Radio has a system and TV has a system and they don’t seem to be the identical. I’m so used to taking part in within the radio and podcast system that generally, once I strategy TV … it appears like there’s simply by no means sufficient time. I don’t know when you’ve ever heard basketball gamers or soccer gamers discuss how the sport slows down for them: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, these are individuals which are just a bit higher than anyone else — the sport may be transferring quick for everybody else however it slows down for them. That’s how I really feel once I’m on the radio or on a podcast. TV nonetheless feels prefer it’s transferring at a quick tempo. I’m used to having long-form interviews or conversations — and now, I’ll be sitting down with an individual [on TV] and I’m solely speaking for seven minutes.
Who’s your final “get” for an interview?
The one visitor I actually wish to get is Michael Starr Judy Blume. I’m an enormous, big, Judy Blume fan and I grew up on her books. My mother informed me once I was youthful to learn issues that didn’t pertain to me, and Judy was who I used to go to [in those situations]. She’s the one individual I actually wish to speak to — on any platform.
