An aftershow or after-show is a genre of television talk show whose topic is another television program. An aftershow is typically broadcast immediately after a new episode of its corresponding program, to help retain the audience, and to provide additional discussion and content related to the program (such as analysis and behind-the-scenes material). Aftershows may also include guest appearances by a show's staff or cast, and emphasize viewer contributions. A similar, earlier concept in sports broadcasting is the post-game show.
An aftershow's typical format, pioneered by Howard Stern's The Wrap-Up Show on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006, is two or more people discussing a just-aired episode. This is sometimes accompanied by bonus material from the series, or special guests such as actors or creative staff. [1] TV channels see aftershows as a cheap way to provide more content for avid fans of popular series, as a venue for interacting with fans directly, and to help provide additional context and analysis to the series' narrative and themes. [2] Aftershows can also help a channel retain viewers after an episode airs. [1]
Some aftershows—particularly those involving reality series—focus more on behind the scenes material, as well as interviews with eliminated and former contestants. Some of these examples, including American Idol Extra , [3] Britain's Got More Talent, [4] Strictly Come Dancing: It Takes Two , [5] and The Xtra Factor , [6] primarily aired on a sister channel to the network that carried the main program (such as BBC Two, ITV2, and the Fox Reality Channel). For its former coverage of the Indian Premier League in cricket, Sony Pictures Networks aired Extraaa Innings T20 —which combined the aftershow concept with elements of a traditional sports post-game show by featuring both match analysis and entertainment segments such as celebrity interviews. [7] [8] The Channel 4 talk show The Last Leg with Adam Hills was originally conceived as an aftershow for its coverage of the 2012 Summer Paralympics, [9] [10] but proved successful enough to be renewed as a standalone series. [11]
MTV Canada's The After Show was cited by the Toronto Star as an early predecessor to the aftershow format adopted in North America. [2] The show was produced to accompany its airings of MTV's Laguna Beach , due to CRTC licensing requirements regarding the provision of Canadian content and talk show programming (the latter stemming from the service's early history in a previous format, TalkTV). [12] The show gained a steady following: MTV Canada began producing the show in front of a studio audience for the Laguna Beach finale, resulting in "thousands" of fans lining up outside of the channel's Toronto studio for a chance to attend. The format was extended to its sister series The Hills , and was later picked up to air on the U.S. MTV channel as well. [2]
In 2009, Bravo premiered Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen , a late-night talk show which primarily discusses Bravo's reality programming, and features viewer contributions such as questions. It also discusses other facets and headlines in popular culture, and expanded from a weekly to weeknight scheduling in 2011. [13] [14]
Following the example of Talking Dead , U.S. entertainment channels began to add aftershows to their most popular scripted series in the 2010s. Embassy Row—the Sony Pictures Television-owned studio who produces Talking Dead, would be commissioned by other networks for their some of their own aftershows, such as Shark After Dark Live (which it produced for Discovery's Shark Week event). [15] In 2012, Maria Menounos launched AfterBuzz TV, a network of post-show podcasts devoted to various television series. [16]
Title | Program(s) discussed | First aired | Last aired | Channel | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen | Various reality series | 2009 | present | Bravo | ||
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked | RuPaul's Drag Race | 2010 | present | Logo TV (2010–2014) | Began with season 2 | |
YouTube (2015–2017) | ||||||
VH1 (2018–present) | ||||||
Doctor Who Confidential | Doctor Who | 2005 | 2011 | BBC Three | ||
The After Show | Various reality series | 2010 | MTV | |||
Thronecast | Game of Thrones | 2011 | 2019 | Sky Atlantic | ||
Talking Dead | The Walking Dead Fear the Walking Dead | 2011 | present | AMC | Began with season 2 for both series | [17] |
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Declassified | Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. | 2013 | 2014 | ABC.com | Only the first season. | [18] |
Talking Bad | Breaking Bad | 2013 | 2013 | AMC | Only for final eight episodes of the series | [19] |
Wolf Watch | Teen Wolf | 2013 | 2015 | MTV | Only from the second half of Season 3 to some episodes in the first half of Season 5. | |
Anarchy Afterword | Sons of Anarchy | 2013 | 2014 | FX | Online web series; for seasons 6 and 7 | [20] |
Rebels Recon | Star Wars Rebels | 2014 | 2018 | Disney XD | Online web series for entire show | |
After the Black | Orphan Black | 2015 | 2017 | Space / BBC America | Began with season 3 | [21] [22] |
Talking Saul | Better Call Saul | 2016 | 2022 | AMC | Only for season 2-3 (for premiere and finale episodes only) and season 6 (two episodes) | [23] |
After the Thrones | Game of Thrones | 2016 | 2016 | HBO | For season 6 only | [24] |
Talking Preacher | Preacher | 2016 | 2017 | AMC | Only for premiere and finale episodes | [25] |
Hacking Robot | Mr. Robot | 2016 | 2019 | USA Network | Began with season 2; only for premiere and finale episodes | [26] |
Mr. Robot Digital After Show | The Verge / USA Network | Began with season 2; online only | [27] | |||
Raw Talk | Monday Night Raw | 2016 | present | WWE Network | ||
WWE Talking Smack | SmackDown | 2016 | Present | WWE Network | Only for one week, aired on FS1 on October 23, 2020. | |
After Trek | Star Trek: Discovery | 2017 | 2018 | CBS All Access | Only for season 1 | |
The Ready Room | Star Trek: Discovery | 2019 | Present | CBS All Access / Paramount+ | Began with season 2 | |
Star Trek: Lower Decks | Began with season 1; only for premiere and finale episodes with occasional "midseason specials" | |||||
Star Trek: Picard | Began with season 1; bonus episode aired during post season 1 hiatus | [28] | ||||
Star Trek: Prodigy | Began with season 1; only for premiere and finale episodes | |||||
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds | Began with season 1; bonus episode aired prior to season 2 | |||||
Beyond the Reasons | 13 Reasons Why | 2017 | Present | Netflix | ||
Beyond Stranger Things | Stranger Things | 2017 | Present | Netflix | Began with season 2 | [29] |
Crisis Aftermath | Arrowverse | 2019 | 2019 | The CW | ||
Look Hooo's Talking | The Owl House | 2020 | 2020 | Disney Channel | Online web series for first ten episodes | |
Revelations: The Masters of the Universe Revelation Aftershow | Masters of the Universe: Revelation | 2021 | Present | Netflix | [30] | |
One Killer Question | Only Murders in the Building | 2023 | Present | Hulu | ||
Australian Survivor: Talking Tribal | Australian Survivor | 2023 | Present | Network 10 |
Following the premiere of anime spoof Perfect Hair Forever in 2004, Adult Swim aired the Anime Talk Show, an aftershow spoof led by Space Ghost. The panel consisted of Adult Swim characters Meatwad, Early Cuyler, and Sharko, who never actually discuss the previous show despite Space Ghost's repeated attempts to get them to do so.
British comedian Peter Kay's 2008 reality television satire Britain's Got the Pop Factor... and Possibly a New Celebrity Jesus Christ Soapstar Superstar Strictly on Ice featured an "aftershow" as an epilogue, Peter Kay's Britain's Got an Extra Pop Factor and Then Some 2 + 1. [31]
In 2015, when CBS aired reruns of its primetime dramas to fill the former timeslot of Late Show with David Letterman until the premiere of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert , The Late Late Show with James Corden satirized the format with cold open sketches depicting aftershows such as Talking Mentalist and Talking Hawaii Five-0. One sketch also featured a metaparody, Talking Talking Mentalist—an aftershow for Talking Mentalist hosted by Corden's bandleader Reggie Watts. [32] [33]
The 2019 Fox comedy What Just Happened??! with Fred Savage is framed as an aftershow for an in-universe drama series entitled The Flare. [34] Its season (and ultimately, series) finale featured Savage's character dealing with the cancellation of The Flare, and having to use his show to promote the in-universe teen drama Havenbrook. [35]
Paramount Network is an American basic cable television channel owned by the MTV Entertainment Group unit of Paramount Media Networks, a division of Paramount Global. The network's headquarters are located at the Paramount Pictures studio lot in Los Angeles.
AMC is an American multinational basic cable television channel that is the flagship property of AMC Networks. The channel's programming primarily consists of theatrically released films, along with a limited amount of original programming. The channel's name originally stood for American Movie Classics, but since 2002 the full name has been de-emphasized as a result of a major shift in its programming.
Broadcast programming is the practice of organizing or ordering (scheduling) of broadcast media shows, typically the radio and the television, in a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or season-long schedule.
AXS TV is an American cable television channel. Majority-owned by Anthem Sports & Entertainment, it is devoted primarily to music-related programming and combat sports – including boxing, mixed martial arts and professional wrestling.
The CBS Late Movie is a CBS television series during the 1970s and 1980s. The program ran in most American television markets from 11:30 p.m. (ET/PT) until 2:30 a.m. or later, on weeknights. A single announcer voiced the introduction and commercial bumpers for each program, but there was no host per se, or closing credits besides those of the night's presentation.
Andy Greenwald is an American author, critic, podcaster, screenwriter, and television producer.
The After Show is the title of several aftershows aired by MTV's Canadian channel, originally connected to reality series by MTV such as Laguna Beach and The Hills. Because the Canadian channel now known as MTV was originally approved as a talk channel, it is required to emphasize interactive talk programming. Companion talk shows are not required for all MTV reality shows, but in the case of "reality dramas" like The Hills, the After Shows help to contextualize the series in order to fit the channel's mandate.
A late-night talk show is a popular genre of talk show, originating in the United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is characterized by spontaneous conversation, and for an effect of immediacy and intimacy as if the host were speaking alone to each of the millions of audience members. Late-night talk shows are also fundamentally shaped by the personality of the host, which constitutes the "trademark" of the show.
The Walking Dead is an American post-apocalyptic horror drama television series developed by Frank Darabont, based on the comic book series of the same name by Robert Kirkman, Tony Moore, and Charlie Adlard. Together, the show and the comic book series form the core of The Walking Dead franchise. The series features a large ensemble cast as survivors of a zombie apocalypse trying to stay alive under near-constant threat of attacks from zombies known as "walkers". With the collapse of modern civilization, these survivors must confront other human survivors who have formed groups and communities with their own sets of laws and morals, sometimes leading to open conflict between them. The series is the first television series within The Walking Dead franchise.
Talking Dead is a live television aftershow in which host Chris Hardwick discusses episodes of the AMC television series The Walking Dead, Fear the Walking Dead and The Walking Dead: World Beyond with guests, including celebrity fans, cast members, and crew from the series.
Teddy Wilson is a Canadian television personality, actor and producer originally from Ottawa, Ontario, best known as host of the interactive real estate show Hot Property on CP24, and the documentary series Mighty Trains on Smithsonian Channel, Discovery Canada, and over 100 other international broadcasters; host of the factual entertainment series Never Ever Do This At Home (2013–2014) on Discovery Channel in Canada and Spike in the United States, and host/producer on the Canadian daily entertainment talk-show InnerSpace on Space (2008–2018). He was also an actor on the internationally syndicated series You Can't Do That On Television, and a senior producer on the Gemini Award-winning series MTV Live.
Talking Bad is a television aftershow hosted by Chris Hardwick that discussed episodes of the AMC television series Breaking Bad. Eight episodes were broadcast live from August 11 to September 29, 2013. Guests featured on the show included cast and crew members from Breaking Bad, celebrity fans, and members from a live audience.
The Late Late Show with James Corden is an American late-night talk show that aired on CBS from 2015 to 2023. It is the fourth and final iteration of The Late Late Show, and aired in the U.S. from Monday to Friday nights at 12:37 a.m. ET/PT. The show was taped in front of a studio audience Monday through Thursday afternoons at Television City in Los Angeles, in Studio 56, directly above the Bob Barker Studio. It was produced by Fulwell 73 and CBS Studios.
Preacher is an American supernatural adventure television series developed by Sam Catlin, Evan Goldberg, and Seth Rogen for AMC starring Dominic Cooper, Joseph Gilgun and Ruth Negga. The series is based on the comic book series Preacher created by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon and published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint. The series was officially picked up on September 9, 2015, with a ten-episode order which premiered on May 22, 2016. The series was renewed for a fourth and final season, which premiered on August 4, 2019 and concluded on September 29, 2019.
Talking Saul is a television aftershow hosted by Chris Hardwick that discussed episodes of the AMC television series Better Call Saul, that aired from February 15, 2016 to August 8, 2022. Guests featured on the show included cast and crew members from Better Call Saul.
After Trek is a live American aftershow hosted by Matt Mira on CBS All Access, in which Mira discusses episodes of the All Access television series Star Trek: Discovery with guests, including cast and crew members from the series as well as celebrity fans. It was produced by Embassy Row in association with Roddenberry Entertainment.
RuPaul's Drag Race: Untucked! is a spin-off of the American reality competition RuPaul's Drag Race, currently airing on the cable channel MTV. The program debuted on Logo in the United States on February 1, 2010, as a companion show launched in conjunction with the second season of RuPaul's Drag Race; it moved to WOWPresents on March 3, 2015, as a web series, coinciding with the debut of the seventh season of the parent series. The series returned to cable television on VH1, on March 22, 2018, coinciding with the tenth season of RuPaul's Drag Race. The show now airs on MTV as of January 6, 2023, in conjunction with the fifteenth season of the main series.
Breaking Bad is an American neo-Western crime media franchise created by Vince Gilligan, primarily based on the two television series Breaking Bad (2008–2013) and Better Call Saul (2015–2022), and the film El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019). The fictional universe is sometimes informally referred to as the "Gilliverse".