Source: Comedy Central / Comedy Central
Charlamagne Tha God returns to late night in a triumphant manner, as we get to sit down with the media personality as the new season of his show kicks off.
The late-night talk show hosted by the multi-hyphenate media personality returns to Comedy Central with a new name, Hell of A Week With Charlamagne Tha God. Rest assured, it not only retains the same provocative but pulsating and positive energy that drew audiences in when it dropped last year, but it moves in a precise manner that will definitely keep viewers locked in.
The first episode gets off to a highly entertaining start from Charlamagne’s opening monologue and doesn’t let up as he held court with a panel that featured comedian and Brilliant Idiots podcast host Andrew Schulz, Democratic political strategist and former senior advisor for Pete Buttigieg’s 2020 Presidential campaign Lis Smith along with writer, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research fellow and Conversations with Coleman podcast host, Coleman Hughes.
Things got off to a highly charged start as Charlamagne posed the question of if GOP Representative Liz Cheney should be regarded as a hero for her leadership in the House Select Committee that is currently investigating the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, 2021. The discussion then turned to another eyebrow-raising subject—eating bugs to save the environment before discussing Nick Cannon’s opinions on female hygiene.
The episode’s special guest was Saturday Night Live alum and sitcom star Kenan Thompson, who showed up summer fresh in all-white. He and Charlamagne spoke about Artists For Artists, the full-service production company he launched last December with John Ryan Jr. One of the projects that the company is working on is Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth Part 2, a follow-up to the champion boxer’s one-man show and HBO special. The co-host of The Breakfast Club also asked Kenan about his future with SNL.
We got a chance to sit down with Charlamagne Tha God after the wrap of the premiere episode to get his insight on the new season.
HHW: So the first question I have for you, is with this name change for the new season. What’s your thinking behind that? And what’s the energy that you want to present with that?
Charlamagne Tha God: Well, that was an executive decision. It was a corporate decision. Because they wanted a title that sounded more like a weekly, late-night talk show. Especially being that they were moving us to Thursday night right after the Daily Show because now it’s like an hour block of talk show. You see the Daily Show, you probably know what that’s about. Yeah, a hell of a week, you go, that’s it. That’s it. That’s a talk show. And so, they know we cover the topics each week, and who am I to argue with the people that do this? Every single day, like, I just want to win and win big. I don’t want to just be okay, I don’t want to just be good. I want to be like, great. I want to compete in a real way with everybody else in the talk show space. When they suggested the name change, we all sat around and kicked around names. I’m like, I don’t care. Like it’s just a name. Helps to show the growth. Let’s do it.
HHW: That actually leads into my second question. With what we’re expecting to see from this new season with your unique and highly charged and enigmatic interview style, we’re expecting to see guests from all over the spectrum. From the Biden presidential administration to rappers. Is there anybody that you would not want to interview?
Charlamagne: No, honestly. Depends, right? If it is somebody I don’t want to interview, it’s not because of anything to do with their content as a person. Okay. It’s because sometimes in this business, you just know what is happening behind the scenes, right? You know, you have people that you love, and you care for, and you’re loyal to, and I know like, this person doesn’t really rock with this person for a real, real reason. I’m loyal to the soil, man. That’s it. But other than that, you’ll never see anybody not on the show, just because of their ideologies, what they believe in and what party they represent.
HHW: What are your thoughts on going into your second season, seeing the turmoil that went on with the split with Desus & Mero? Because you’ve been supportive of them from way back how does [their split] make you feel? How do you feel about that energy kind of coming into play with how you want your show and your vision to be presented?
Charlamagne: Well, this is a marathon. So when I first met Desus and Mero, we were all working at MTV together. I’ll never forget when an executive named Paul Ritchie called me in his office and was like, “Yo, are you familiar with these Americans?” I was like, “Oh from Complex?,” and then he was just showing me a lot of the stuff that they were doing on social media. And he was like, “Man, they remind me of you, you all would do well, we all get together. And you might want to bring them in.” I’m like, “Yeah, bring them in.”
I mean, I’m never going to say don’t bring in more Black people, of course. [MTV] kind of didn’t know what to do with them, it was like they kind of had signed them and they just had a room upstairs, Mero had put graffiti all over the wall (laughs). We would come in and just kick it with them every day. Mero talked about it recently on the Math Hoffa podcast he was talking about like, “Yo Charlemagne gave us a lot of game and you know, just kind of showed us how to move into the industry.” Because they were super talented. So when I got my opportunity to do Uncommon Sense, which was my talk show at MTV2 to write and ran for three seasons, they were on both seasons…doing a segment called Classical Trash. My dream was for me to have like the 11 o’clock slot, and then they have like the 11:30 slot. People here didn’t quite see the vision.
And then they got the opportunity to go to Vice. And they go “Hey…contract’s about to be up. Vice is offering us this,” trying to make one last push for MTV to counter that and get them. And so they kicked ass and they ended up on Showtime. So, to me, man, I don’t feel like they even got the opportunity to really scratch the surface of what, you know, that brand could be, you know. Because the podcast, you know, Bodega boys TV…they hadn’t even been in the game 10 years. You know, as far as television is concerned. So, yeah, I didn’t like that at all. Still don’t like it. Hopefully, that’s not how it ends.
Hell Of A Week With Charlamagne Tha God airs Thursday nights at 11:30 P.M. ET on Comedy Central.
