Comedy Central announced on Friday plans to cancel the "Opposition with Jordan Klepper" after its June 28 episode and to launch a new primetime weekly series with the same comedian in early 2019.
Comedy Central released a statement thanking the cast and crew of the "The Opposition" for efforts in creating a "bold, provocative show."
"We are excited to announce Klepper, a new, primetime weekly series created by and starring Jordan Klepper. The new series will premiere in early 2019 with production beginning in July," Comedy Central said in a statement on Friday. "Accordingly, production on The Opposition will cease after its June 28 episode. We thank the cast and crew of The Opposition for their incredible efforts in creating such a bold, provocative show and look forward to the launch of Jordan’s new primetime series next year."
Klepper's character in "The Opposition," an alt-media satire, was inspired by watching how the alternative media was influencing the "paranoia" era of Trump, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
"I was on the road a lot at these Trump rallies [for The Daily Show] and as I would talk to these people, the things I’d hear out there were coming from places like Infowars, Breitbart and nontraditional media sources," Klepper said. "We are going to play in the world where myself and this team and this world around us are going to be the ones who are shaking their fists."
Klepper, who joined the "Daily Show" in 2014, went on to talk about how he looks forward to introducing a new character to his viewers next year when the new show launches.
"I couldn’t be more proud of the hard-working, creative staff of The Opposition who tirelessly filtered the world through the chaos of America’s fringe," Klepper said in a statement. "This staff is remarkable. Moving forward, I will be leaving The Opposition’s paranoid Jordan Klepper character behind. I figured maybe, right now, the world could use one less asshole. This new Jordan Klepper guy I know intimately cause I’ve been him for the better part of my life. He’s eager to get into the field, talk to real America and make a kickass television show."
Comedy Central's logline says Klepper will have the opportunity in his new show to get out of the studio and interview real people around the country about policy issues that are important to him his viewers. The comedian "intends to drive" the political narrative by "challenging attitudes, perceptions and bias."
Klepper, similar to Stephen Colbert before him, brought his Daily Show-inspired persona to the time slot formerly occupied by The Colbert Report. The Opposition became the new companion series to The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, airing 11:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, after the cancelation of Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show. (Chris Hardwick's @midnight briefly occupied the coveted time slot in the interim.)
Comedy Central has not yet eyed a successor, meaning Noah will be the sole late-night host on the network, and plans to run reruns of The Office in the vacated slot for the short term. The network is also home to The President Show, the experimental weekly late-night talk show with Anthony Atamanuik in character as President Trump that recently aired a "Make America Great-a-Thon" special.