Charlamagne Tha God is taking his style of tough questioning from radio to television with a new Comedy Central talk show.
Vulture reports that he’ll be hosting a weekly half-hour show on the network that will focus on cultural topics and the day’s events. There hasn’t been a premiere date announced yet, but Comedy Central wants to get “The Breakfast Club” host on air by the time November’s general election rolls around.
Chris McCarthy, who’s president of the Entertainment and Youth Group at ViacomCBS, Comedy Central’s parent company, began talking to Charlamagne about doing a show in late 2019. It was around the same time that McCarthy was tasked with reinventing Comedy Central, which he’s now in the process of doing.
The two men used to work together almost 10 years ago when McCarthy was the main guy at MTV 2, where Charlamagne appeared on shows “Guy Code,” “Uncommon Sense,” and “Charlamagne & Friends.”
“Giving me a TV deal almost ten years ago didn’t really make any sense. I was a radio guy,” Charlamagne told Vulture in the magazine’s July 7 article announcing Charlamagne’s deal. “It’s easy to say, ‘You know what? I think Charlamagne Tha God needs a talk show now.’ But almost ten years ago for him to have that vision, that did a lot for me. A lot of my success right now is because of those looks that I got on MTV2 and Viacom at the time. And none of that would’ve happened if it wasn’t for Chris.”
The popular radio host was born Lenard McKelvey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
As an adult, he made his way to New York City and landed a job as Wendy Williams’ co-host on Williams once-popular radio show around 2006.
He, Angela Yee, and DJ Envy then started “The Breakfast Club” in 2010 on Power 105.1. The New York-based show has been a huge hit and a necessary stop for urban artists who need to promote their work.
While speaking to Vulture, Charlamagne said that his Comedy Central show will be inspired by other topic-driven talk shows, like HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher” and “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
But just like on radio, Charlamagne said he’ll avoid asking guests cookie-cutter questions.
“You have a lot of people on these news shows and these talk shows who do a lot of asking answers, instead of asking questions,” he said. “Meaning, like they’ll say things like, ‘Is coronavirus a global pandemic?’ Duh. Or, ‘Is Donald Trump doing a good job?’ Uh, no.”
“Like, don’t leave any room for something to be manipulated,” added Charlamagne. “I’m not in the business of asking answers. I’m in the business of asking the tough questions and getting actual statements on how I see the world. And you can choose to agree or disagree. But a conversation will be started.”
