CNN will start showing the post-show Overtime segments from HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher as part of its Friday edition of CNN Tonight.
The segments will start this Friday at 11:30 PM ET.
The Overtime segments have up to now been posted online and promoted to viewers of Real Time. They feature Maher and his guests continuing their discussion on a range of topics and answering viewer questions.
The scheduling of the segments is the latest move by CNN Worldwide chairman and CEO Chris Licht to bolster the network’s primetime and late-night lineup. He has not yet named a permanent show for the 9 PM ET timeslot, and sources say that one of the ideas considered has been to schedule a non-traditional host, such as a comedian, for that time period. But a range of options have been considered. Licht told the Los Angeles Times, “We are in conversations with culturally relevant individuals from the worlds of entertainment, sports and comedy who can bring fresh and unique perspectives to the news.”
In 2021, Fox News bumped an 11 PM ET newscast to midnight to make way for a nightly series featuring commentator and comedian Greg Gutfeld, a move that turned out to be a ratings success.
Real Time recently debuted its 21st season.
The executive producers of Real Time are Bill Maher, Sheila Griffiths, Marc Gurvitz, Dean Johnsen, Billy Martin. The co-executive producer is Chris Kelly, producer is Matt Wood, and director is Paul Casey.
This is also the latest CNN collaboration with another Warner Bros. Discovery entity. After CNN+ was shut down last year, one of its shows, Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, was moved to HBOMax, with new episodes dropping on Fridays followed by best-of shows on CNN on Sunday nights. Last year, when CNN underwent layoffs, the network announced that Investigation Discovery would oversee the lineup of true crime programming on HLN.
