Roy Wood Jr. is set to launch a new comedy show, and if all goes well, it will feature people who aren't supposed to be funny or entertaining on a network not known for making people laugh.
“I like comedy in difficult places,” Wood jokes.
He found one. CNN — CNN? — will launch Wood on Saturday as host of “Have I Got News for You,” the American version of a major British comedy show. On “The News,” two teams of comedians, newsmakers, actors and media personalities use news clips and headlines to generate jokes and laughter, all in an improvised manner, through a round of different segments. Amber Ruffin, an actress and writer for the evening show, and Michael Ian Black, an actor, comedian and author, will serve as team captains each week.
One element that may make the show more appealing, Wood says, is the willingness to engage newsmakers—even polarizing ones—on the show. “In America, we’re not always big fans of giving the ‘bad guy’ the microphone,” he says. “But above all, it’s about laughter, and we got a chance to be on the show.” from to say What“And if we can tie those two things together every week, I think we'll have a product that's going to be on the air for a very long time,” Wood says.
CNN may have served as the backdrop for any number of “Saturday Night Live” sketches, but Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t known for being particularly funny per se. Over the years, however, its executives have experimented with programming with a decidedly lighter tone. In 2008 and 2009, CNN introduced a show led by comedian D.L. Hughley. W. Kamau Bell, a comedian and activist who previously hosted weekly comedy series at FX and FXX, hosted a CNN docuseries called “United Shades of America.” In 2019, CNN gave Colin Quinn some time on the air for a one-off special.
“Have I Got News for You” has been on the BBC since 1990, so CNN executives felt comfortable adding it to their schedule, says Amy Entelis, CNN’s executive vice president of talent and content. “It was in the hands of very experienced people” who would oversee the American version, she says in an interview. “We felt we could give it a try and our audience would give us permission to try.”
CNN has already paved the way. The network has been airing Bill Maher’s HBO show, “Real Time,” on Saturdays for months, getting viewers used to the profanity, caustic commentary and sarcasm. Entelis says the show is bringing a new audience to CNN on Saturdays.
Plus, Fox News has already experimented with comedy and found it successful: The network not only has a Saturday comedy show hosted by Jimmy Failla, but also a prime-time roundtable hosted by Greg Gutfeld, one of its most-watched shows.
Viewers are used to seeing guests with shocking backgrounds on comedy shows, Wood says. Even “SNL” has the occasional guest who stirs controversy. In the recent past, executive producer Lorne Michaels has given the green light to hosts like Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Dave Chappelle and Sean Gillis.
“It would be great to have someone like Eric Adams or Ted Cruz who can come in and accept being stabbed and then come back,” Wood says. “And if you don’t like it, you have an open space and an opportunity to respond. That’s what I would ultimately like to see on this show.”
Saturday nights aren’t the most watched nights on TV. Broadcast networks tend to fill prime time with reruns and college football games. CNN faced similar challenges on Sundays in 2013 when it decided to fill its schedule with documentary series that featured Anthony Bourdain, among others, says Entelis. That has become a signature part of CNN’s programming base. Maher and Wood “can help set a different tone for Saturday night,” she says.
Wood points to the opportunity as one of the reasons he left the Daily. “It was the scenario I was hoping for,” he says, and he thinks that leaving before an election year was a smart strategy. “If there was a good opportunity for me, I thought it would come in an election year, not after,” he says.
Comedy news has flourished, but not usually on news outlets. People have embraced “The Daily Show,” “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver,” and “Weekend Up Stormi” from “Saturday Night Live.” When subscribers to Max, the Warner-owned streaming service, select the “news” section, they are offered access to past episodes of HBO’s “Oliver & Maher,” along with the option to stream CNN. It shouldn’t be too hard to convince CNN viewers to pay attention, Wood says. “I think the idea that comedy and news can’t coexist is a myth.”
