Charlamagne Tha God’s late-night present has been rebranded with a brand new title, govt 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 friends, 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 govt producer of “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart,” introduced on board to assist steer the ship.
Charlamagne (aka Lenard McKelvey) — a radio Hall of Famer who co-hosts the nationally syndicated “The Breakfast Club” on Power 105.1 with DJ Envy and Angela Yee — spoke to The Post 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 wished. They do these focus teams and analysis teams and testings … “Hell of a Week” reads extra like a weekly late-night discuss present than “Tha God’s Honest Truth.” I’m all the time a scholar and attempting to be taught and I’m additionally attempting to win — so if the community involves me and says, “We think that with a tweak like this more viewers will come to the show and realize it’s a weekly late-night talk show” … I’m gonna belief the consultants.
Will the concentrate on a panel format influence the best way you host the present?
“I truly 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 need different individuals’s enter and debate. That’s the place you get quite a lot of training typically, and I believe it will likely be extra helpful for me and for the viewers at house.
Was Josh Lieb introduced on to take the present in a special course?
No. I imply, in Season 1 we talked in regards to the decrackerfication of America, and I believe that if a community goes to allow you to speak about that, which is principally what I believe 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 group and we have now such an excellent artistic group already, together with my showrunner, Rachael Edwards, who’s unimaginable at what she does. I’m a agency believer that if [the network] needs this sort of present, it’s important to be in enterprise with somebody who’s already executed it — and Josh has [won] seven Emmys with “The Daily Show.” So I believe 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 all the time must be your true, genuine self, which is the number-one factor if 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 aren’t the identical. I’m so used to enjoying within the radio and podcast system that typically, once I strategy TV … it seems like there’s simply by no means sufficient time. I don’t know if you happen to’ve ever heard basketball gamers or soccer gamers speak about how the sport slows down for them: Michael Jordan, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Steph Curry, these are individuals which can be just a bit higher than anyone else — the sport could be transferring quick for everybody else nevertheless 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 solely 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 particular person I actually wish to discuss to — on any platform.
