Nellie Andreeva
Three episodes in, the digital The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah is making the leap to linear television. Starting on Monday, March 23, The Daily Social Distancing Show, produced and distributed remotely, with Noah and The Daily Show team working from their homes, will air weeknights at 11 pm on Comedy Central.
Following the production shutdown of all late-night shows at the end of last week amid an escalating COVID-19 pandemic, they started to return one by one with online videos featuring the hosts doing monologues and remote celebrity interviews from their homes.
The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah launched on Wednesday, two days after The Late Show and one day after The Tonight Show and ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live started their daily videos.
From the start, The Daily Social Distancing Show with Trevor Noah, distributed via the program’s online and social channels, was the most elaborate among its YouTube-bound late-night brethren, featuring complex editing involving numerous short clips as well as images and graphics.
It has been a ratings success, with the digital series amassing 3+ million viewers per episode within 24 hours of release on YouTube alone.
The Daily Social Distancing Show also will continue to be available on the series’ social channels. That is expected to set a template for the other late-night shows, many of which are longer in length on linear TV, making the transition more difficult.
It also involves bringing homemade video production up to meet the broadcast standards.
The Daily Social Distancing Show‘s digital editions have varied in length between 12-18 min (with no commercials), so expanding the episodes to fill a 20 something minute slot (with no commercials) won’t be a stretch.
The show also tested monologues, celebrity interviews and pieces with correspondents over the last three nights. Moving forward, Noah will also continue the donation drive supporting the charities No Kid Hungry and City Harvest.
In addition to The Daily Social Distancing Show, the late-night talker’s team has been churning out digital-only content through the show’s various social channels.
Noah has given viewers an inside look as he prepped for self-quarantine – singing from his balcony (more than once) and cleaning his home. www.deadline.com
