Watching the American talk show twist and mutate over the last few weeks has been one of the stranger—if also more benign—aspects of our shared existence living out here in the Quarantine Zone. For as formulaic as late-night talk has become over the last several decades, the realization that all you really need to make it work is a camera, some decent jokes, and a few charismatic people to tell them (plus god knows how many people working behind the scenes to keep those other parts propped up) has been a minor revelation, as the vast majority of hosts have bounced back from their shelter-in-place restrictions with some measure of shut-in, iPhoned aplomb.
That enforced willingness to allow the aesthetics of your average YouTube chat stream to bleed on to the hallowed grounds of Actual Television has also opened the door for even more charismatic TV people to get in the technically-professional-TV-making game, too. Take, for example, Walking Dead star Jeffrey Dean Morgan, who has just secured a new AMC talk show of his own, Friday Night In With The Morgans. As the name suggests, the series will star Morgan and his wife, actress Hilarie Burton Morgan, hanging out, video chatting with folks, and just generally being charming while talking about the issues of the day. In other words, it’s exactly the sort of content that would have made for a really killer Facebook watch stream like six months ago, but which will now be broadcast on cable television, because hell, what else are we going to do on a Friday night?
The series will premiere next Friday, April 17.