Taylor Tomlinson tried to save After Midnight before CBS ended it

Taylor Tomlinson told the producers of CBS's After Midnight she could not make another season, handed them a list of comics who could take over, and watched the network cancel the late-night show instead.

The decision affected nearly 200 people who worked on the programme. Tomlinson calls quitting one of the hardest decisions she has ever made, in a book excerpt published by The Hollywood Reporter. She first told two executive producers, the senior managers who oversee a show's budget and creative direction, and then offered to help keep it alive.

She said she wanted CBS to renew After Midnight with a replacement host. She offered to speak to the network, do press and ring potential hosts herself. CBS chose to end it.

Tomlinson described herself as being in survival mode, exhausted and burnt out before she announced her departure. For the first five months of After Midnight, she was not doing stand-up or touring. She worked on the show for three days, then spent four days in bed, she said in an interview published on September 24 by The Hollywood Reporter.

Health problems ran underneath the schedule. Tomlinson said she tested for mould, which was found in her blood. Her immune system stayed fragile and she became, in her words, a full-blown germaphobe. During season two her health improved with the aid of roughly 30 supplements taken twice daily.

The show itself was unsettled. After Midnight went through three showrunners, the writers in charge of day-to-day running of a series, between seasons one and two. Tomlinson said she had taken the job partly because she was lonely and wanted a reason to be in Los Angeles. Once in the chair, she worked the TV job on weekdays and took cross-country flights every weekend for live dates.

Stephen Colbert called her after he learned she planned to leave. Colbert, whose company produced After Midnight, had previously told her to call him if she ever needed to talk about anything.

Tomlinson links leaving late night and managing her health to her new book. Actually, Nevermind, a collection of autobiographical essays, is now out, she told TODAY. The book is published by Gallery Books, runs to 304 pages and was published on September 22, 2026, according to Simon & Schuster. It follows Have It All, her third Netflix special.

In the book she writes about reading her late mother's journals and about her siblings helping her come out, as reported by the Detroit Free Press.

For viewers, this means the end of that version of After Midnight. No new host. No third season crew. Just a comic back on the road with a book of essays about why she stepped away.