Ben Gleib Talks About Reinventing Late Night On YouTube With ‘Good Night’
Late at night at the crossroads, Ben Gleib made a new move.
On May 28, just a week after the complete closure of the The Late ShowGleib is set to run A good night with Ben Gleibthe world’s first late-night talk show built exclusively for YouTube.
It’s a bet based on the belief that late night as a format is more important than ever – even if the infrastructure behind it is collapsing.
Between skyrocketing production costs and the continued erosion of television viewership, late-night talk shows have been under increasing pressure for years, being used more in short clips broadcast on social media than live and in full. Last year, the growth of political and business pressure around both The Late Show again Jimmy Kimmel Live! they only had serious questions about the long-term sustainability of the format on broadcast television.
For Gleib, the solution to the night’s problems isn’t reinventing the wheel, per se – although his show does incorporate a number of innovations, including a virtual audience segment at the taping and a post-show after-party experience. Instead, it embraces the reality of how content is consumed today – using YouTube as a new home base, rather than just an advertising arm.
With Black Eyed Peas drummer Keith Harris serving as bandleader with Stewart Bailey (The Daily Show, Last call with Carson Daly) as a showrunner, Gleib’s critically acclaimed show boasts a softer footing than the network’s typical talk show.
The opposite part? He films the shows at home in Los Angeles, producing a 42-episode first season, and 42 episodes of post-show episodes, for an estimated $1.5 million.
For Gleib, a self-described night owl who got restless at night as a child, A good night with Ben Gleib it represents the culmination of a lifelong ambition – and something he’s been building towards since college. While studying at UC San Diego in the late 1990s, he created and participated The Gleib Showtalk show that served as his honors thesis, which later ran on the National Lampoon College Network. Gleib’s work there led to a Fox pilot produced by Lorne Michaels’ Broadway Video — the first brush with traditional TV that didn’t progress to series.
In the years since, Gleib has built an extraordinary career that includes stand-up, television hosting, podcasting, and running for president. All the while, he has been focused on the rewards of his late-night talk show. And now he brings his wealth of knowledge as a “jack of all trades” to a project that deserves it.
Gleib sees Sleep well to scale to become a “hundreds of million dollar brand,” between ad revenue, tickets sold to become part of the show’s audience, spin-offs, live tour extensions, merchandise, and much more. In today’s episode of Humor Means Businesshe discusses the multi-year road to bringing the show to life, and the business plan behind the gamble.
Watch the entire interview above.
