Comedy Central announces Trump late-night series The President Show
By Hector Cruz
Comedy Central unveils the new weekly late-night series “The President Show,” hosted by Trump impersonator Anthony Atamanuik.
Comedy Central is going all in on Trump starting later this month. After teasing a new project inspired by the current president with a fake Russian hacking last week during some of its late-night programming like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, the network confirmed Monday in a press release that it’s launching a new series titled The President Show hosted by a faux Donald Trump played by comedian Anthony Atamanuik, who has impersonated the Republican businessman on several shows in the past, including Comedy Central’s own @midnight with Chris Hardwick and the now-cancelled The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, even taking the act on the road for a Trump vs. Bernie tour with fellow comic James Adomian last year.
The half-hour late-night show, executive produced by actor Adam Pally (Making History), will have a weekly format, airing on Thursdays after The Daily Show beginning later this month, pushing @midnight back to its former time slot for one night a week. Atamanuik, who had recurring roles on 30 Rock and Broad City, will be joined by Peter Grosz (Veep) as his sidekick, playing Vice President Mike Pence, as they bypass “the crooked media” to broadcast directly from their own version of the Oval Office. The series will include guest interviews, desk segments and field pieces.
“Laughing at the President is a proud American tradition and we hope not to disappoint anyone in that department,” Atamanuik said in a statement. “But our political system is too broken for us to be content joking about one man, even though he is a disastrous silly little toddler boy. Mostly I’d just like to thank Comedy Central for giving us this platform to speak truth to power and if we’re lucky, end up in prison!”
Watch a trailer for the new program below:
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The announcement came a day before Comedy Central revealed that The Daily Show correspondent Jordan Klepper is getting his own nightly series in the post-Daily Show time slot, becoming the official Nightly Show replacement starting this fall. Other upcoming series on the network include Jim Jefferies’ new late-night show to debut this summer, Moshe Kasher’s Problematic — a re-imagining of the 1980s daytime talk show format that premieres on April 18 — and The Gorburger Show, led by T.J. Miller as a giant blue extra-terrestrial airing Sundays at midnight starting on April 9th.
The President Show premieres Thursday, April 27th at 11:30 p.m. on Comedy Central.