Comedy Central's New Late Night Hit @MIDNIGHT Returns Tonight

Prepare for more #Hashtag Wars, Rapid Refresh, Live Challenges and Cringe-Worthy moments when Chris Hardwick and the pop culture/social media-focused "@midnight" return tonight, January 6 at midnight ET/PT. The series will air Monday-Thursday and mirror the production schedule of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" and "The Colbert Report" throughout 2014.

Produced by Funny Or Die, "@midnight" leads viewers down the ultimate internet wormhole with a rotating lineup of today's top comedians battling nightly to determine who has the funniest take on the day's social media and pop culture and. Using social media as the catalyst and a fake game show as the setting, "@midnight" challenges comedians to win the Internet by slashing the craziest, most absurd news and posts that social media has to offer: from the latest celebrity Instagram shots to the creepiest Craigslist posting to Buzzspeed lists and infamous #HashtagWars. Guest panelists that appeared on the show include Judd Apatow, Doug Benson, Neal Brennan, Kyle Kinane, David Koechner, Natasha Leggero, Tom Lennon, Kumail Nanjiani, , Jonah Ray, Kristen Schaal and David Spade.

During its four-week test run, "@midnight" proved an instant hit for Comedy Central, trending on Twitter nightly as it joined "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" as the top three most-watched series among Men 18-34, Men 18-24 and Adults 18-24 among all late-night shows, both broadcast and cable, providing the #1 brand in comedy with a third must-watch late-night series among its target audience of young men. With a median age of 32, "@midnight" was the youngest of all late-night shows on television.

The popularity and success of "@midnight" extends off Comedy Central to second screens where it was the most talked about late-night show in social media in its four-week run, garnering over 300,000 total mentions on Twitter, which led to over one billion total impressions. The social sensation consistently finished among the top three entertainment series on SocialGuide's Late Fringe rankings, earning the #1 ranking for nine of its 16 episodes, and its signature segment, "#HashtagWars," generated Trending Topics on a nightly basis.

While on hiatus from the television screen following its initial four-week run, "@midnight" continued its social momentum across digital screens, keeping fans engaged with the franchise while they wait for its January return via daily Twitter games like #HashtagWars, Cringe-Worthy, Ke$ha or Rest Stop Bathroom, more Yelp Reviews, as well as digital extensions of popular show segments like Weird Etsy, BuzzSpeed, and Real or Jabroni.

"@midnight" is executive produced by Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant ("RENO 911!"); Hardwick; Mike Farah for Funny Or Die; Alex Blagg, Jason Nadler and Jon Zimelis of Serious Business; showrunner Jack Martin; and Alex Murray of Brillstein Entertainment Partners and co-executive produced by Funny Or Die's Joe Farrell. Gary Mann and Tara Schuster are the Executives in Charge of Production for Comedy Central.

Available on-air, online and on-the-go, Comedy Central (www.cc.com) is the #1 brand in comedy and is owned by, and is a registered trademark of, Comedy Partners, a wholly-owned unit of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB and VIA). For up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs visit Comedy Central's press Web site at www.cc.com/press and follow us on Twitter @ComedyCentralPR for the latest in breaking news updates, behind-the-scenes information and photos.

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