Oct. 11, 2026

Late Night’s Future, Pete Davidson’s Sobriety, and Nate Bargatze’s Boxscore Lead

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac covers comedy news while plugging episode two of his podcast “Is Late Night Dead?” and discussing Bill Carter’s view that Jimmy Kimmel Live’s Brooklyn week (with 150,000 ticket requests) shows late night remains a hot, hard-to-match format despite podcast evolution. Nate Bargatze tells Fox News he avoids politics, aiming for simpler, less polarizing comedy, and later tops Billboard’s August Boxscore for the sixth time in 2026 with $6.5M and 87,000 tickets, with Matt Rife and Max Amini next. Pete Davidson tells Variety he’s sober except for about four beers a year, quit drugs and weed, removed 200 tattoos tied to past pain and self-harm, and will keep a Hillary Clinton tattoo. Other items include David Cross joining a new breakup-and-dating film, a New York Times profile of Chris Rock on insecurity, Prince, and “woke 1.0,” Amini on humility and global touring limits, and Drew Carey set to host season 12 of CBS’s returning Undercover Boss.

00:13 Is Late Night Dead Plug
00:37 Kimmel Brooklyn Buzz
01:17 Podcasts Versus Late Night
01:46 Nate Bargatze Simpler Times
03:02 Pete Davidson Sober Update
03:54 David Cross New Movie
04:12 Chris Rock Self Esteem
05:02 Rock on Woke Era
05:44 Max Amini Staying Grounded
06:40 Amini Culture and Touring
07:36 Amini YouTube Success
08:03 Billboard Comedy Boxscore
08:42 Drew Carey Undercover Boss

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WEBVTT

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Hello, I'm Johnny Mac with your daily comedy news. Bill Carter,

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who wrote the wonderful two books about late night and

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is an expert in the subject, wrote about late night. And,

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you know, this is a good time for me to

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plug my new podcast, Is Late Night Dead? Out today,

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episode two, talking about 1130 Letterman. Bill Carter. Doesn't seem

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to think Late Night is dead. We may disagree there.

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I don't know. I haven't gotten to my conclusion yet.

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I'm just waxing poetically on the episodes. Again, is Late

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Night dead wherever you got this podcast? I do disagree

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with Bill Carter. He said, Yes. And no, like, I

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think outside of, like, great, great, great websites like LateNighter.com

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and us comedy nerds who, you know, listen to a

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guy in the basement reading headlines, I don't think most

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people care that Kimmel was in Brooklyn. I didn't think

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there was a buzz on it. Now, Bill Carter says

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more than 150,000 people requested tickets for the week. That's

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no joke. That's a lot. Carter asks, is all that

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going to be replaced by podcasts? That's the current wisdom.

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The old-fashioned late-night show is expected to evolve into an

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appealing host sitting on camera in radio-style studios. interviewing or

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bantering amusingly with a guest. I mean, I think Conan

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has proven that is the model. But Bill says maybe

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podcasts will evolve and a big audience is sitting and

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laughing inside a TV studio with a big theater and

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a band and a monologue and a desk. But wouldn't

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that just be a late night show? We will see.

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Is late night dead wherever you get your podcasts? Controversial

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mega comedian Nate Bergetzi talked to Fox News as controversial

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mega comedians tend to do. The topic, simpler times. Here

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is Nate. I don't know.

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Everything is so polarizing and everything's so extreme and life

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or death of every, you know, everything. And not that

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stuff's not serious. It is serious, but you know, it's

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also people just taking their kids to school and they

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got to drop five kids off or three kids off

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and you got a soccer game and then a baseball

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game and you got, you know, you're just living life.

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You just, you know, so I think right now is

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a point where, Everything has felt so spread up and

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it's been sped up and it's been speeding up more

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and more and more. And so I think it's time

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for people, they want to take a breath and they

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want to take a step back and just kind of like,

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all right, not everything needs to be so polarizing. Things

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can still be different. just simpler. And I mean, I've

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seen that with the tour that I go on. It's

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like people, you know, I'm not talking about politics or

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anything crazy. And, you know, it's a ton of people

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are coming out and they're, They have fun, and they

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get to laugh, and that's what they need, and that's

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what I want to be there for them.

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Pete Davidson told Variety in a cover story he's sober now,

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save for around four beers a year. Pete said, I

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don't F with drugs anymore. It's been two or three

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years from doing really hard stuff and about a year

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or more from weed. Weirdly, the hardest thing to stop

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was weed, and now it's easy because I have a kid.

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Anytime there's ever a thought, I look at my phone

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background and go, oh yeah, no. Pete is still getting

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the tattoos. He had 200 removed. He said, one, they

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were horrible. Two, it was a business decision. I hated

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coming to the makeup trailer three hours early to spray

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paint over horrible tattoos. And third, I was like, I'm

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not this dude. I got these when I was in

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an immense amount of pain and I was trying to

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show people my pain. Pete said he struggled with self-harm.

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I used to cut. Some of the tattoos covered up

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the cuts. He'll be keeping a few. One of them,

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the one of Hillary Clinton in a power suit. You'll

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find that on Pete Davidson's right leg. Pete said, she stays.

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That's my dog. I love Hillary, man. She's awesome and

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a good friend. David Cross joins Hasan Minhaj and some

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others in a new movie in Untitled Film. We follow Lucy,

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who endures a devastating breakup and ends up moving back

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in with her quirky single dad, played by David Cross,

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as Lucy navigates cringeworthy dates and other personal challenges. The

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New York Times did that big profile with Chris Rock,

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and they were curious when Chris has self-esteem questions. Rock said,

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all artists have self-esteem questions, especially the good ones. An

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artist is an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. I would

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absolutely fall into that. I could feel that way. Eddie

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Murphy makes me feel like that. In the presence of

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Eddie Murphy, I can get a little insecure. And that's

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a name drop, but one of my biggest regrets in life,

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Chris Rock said, is I could never relax around Prince.

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He wanted to be friends. Hanging out, I couldn't be like,

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oh no, Prince is drinking iced tea. I remember I

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was at Prince's house. I'm in Minneapolis. I'd just done

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some shows. He had a party for me at Paisley Park.

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I'm literally in the vault and he's playing me new music.

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There's a lot of people there and his wife called.

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And he was like, everybody quiet, be quiet. It's like

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200 people. His wife called, he's picking up the phone.

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He goes, hey, yeah, nothing. I'm just chilling. Yeah, I'll

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probably go to bed in a couple hours. Love you too.

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And then the party started again. Topic change to the

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woke 1.0 era. The Times is curious, Chris Rock's thoughts

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about it.

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Said.

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The problem is when you institutionalize it. My half a joke,

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the Salem witch hunts, I'm sure the first three witches

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they caught were actually witches, but then you open up

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a witch office and now you got to start lying

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because you got overhead. You got to justify the witch

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hunters pensions and stuff. I'm glad all that stuff happened.

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It needed to happen because it happened. Maybe I've heard

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some voices that I probably wouldn't have heard otherwise. Times

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jumps in, goes, let me switch gears and ask a

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comedy question. Rock takes it back and says, sure, but

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before you do, because I keep saying how bad my

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friends are, I have some genius friends who are unproblematic,

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the most progressive. Some of the greatest artists that have

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ever lived, some that you know and some you don't,

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are my friends. The Times also caught up with Max

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and Meany, and they were curious, you know, you've been

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selling out big places like MSG and the O2 Arena

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in London. How do you not have it go to

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your head? Max said, this is really good advice. The

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way it doesn't get into my head is watching other

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comedians destroy their careers because of their big egos. So

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growing up in the comedy circuit in LA, every comic

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who let the success and entertainment talk go to their

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heads ended up digging their own grave. It's important to

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learn from other people's mistakes. Stay humble. Stay true to

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the reason you started this journey to begin with. It's

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going to be the best outcome. As for not getting

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overwhelmed by big crowds, Maximini said, first, you learn who

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you are as a performer. That takes years. Once that

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clicks and you sort of understand how you function, then

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when you play it on Arena, it's not something you

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think about like, how do I do this? You just

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tap into the energy. You know, you go, all right,

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this is what I'm talking about. This is how I

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connect to people. And this is how a moment of

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performance is going to be special. Not taking it for

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granted is very important. I think people that are very professional,

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they treat every show like it's their last show. Sounds

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like he's super grounded. They asked him about blending American

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culture with his Iranian culture. He said, I was born

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in Tucson, Arizona. I'm American and I'm also Iranian. I'm Iranian-American,

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and in this world today, I'm from two of the

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most hated countries in the world, Iran and America, but

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I'm extremely loved as a person. So it makes me

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realize we're not who our government is, and that goes

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for every country and every people. You're representing you as

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a human being, and if you're a loving, kind, accepting human,

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people will treat you the same. Politics aside, my brand

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of comedy is love. They asked him about touring globally.

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He said, if you go to certain countries, there are

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certain limitations. Middle East and certain countries, they ask you

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not to talk about certain things. To me, first and foremost,

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if you're going to another country, you got to respect

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that country's rules and regulations. If you don't want to

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respect it, why bother? But if you're showing up, you

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have to think, does my brand of comedy still resonate

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within these limitations? In my case, I have very observational humor.

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I talk about my family and my life story. My

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point of view is I show up when I leave

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the stage. Did I make the world a better place?

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Did I walk away and make a difference in some

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people's world? And I think that's special. Max got popular

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on YouTube. He said, it's phenomenal. The numbers were presented

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to me and they said I'm the most watched comedian

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in the world. And frankly, I think it should be

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a motivating factor for everybody, not just comedians or artists,

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meaning anybody who has a company, anybody who has a product,

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anybody that's doing any sort of job can utilize social

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media to reach out directly to the people and present

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their product and immediately see a result. Quality speaks for

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itself nowadays. You don't need a middle person. And if

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you have something that makes the world a better place,

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you would definitely see some positive feedback. Billboard published the

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August box score report. Topping the list, controversial mega-comedian Nate

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Bregazzi at the top of the list for the sixth

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time in 2026. The controversial mega-comedian did seven shows in

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August and grossed $ 6. 5 million and sold 87,000 tickets. Doesn't

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seem like going to a UFC fight has affected his

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career too badly, despite the Daily Beast trying to get

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us all upset about the controversial mega-comedian. Matt Rife and

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Max Amini were second and third. Matt Rife grossed $ 6. 2 million,

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Max $ 5. 9 million. And Drew Carey has signed on to

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host season 12 of Undercover Boss on CBS's The First

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Time Undercover Boss Will Have a Host. The show hasn't

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been on CBS since 2022 and a suit at CBS

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said we couldn't think of a better time to bring

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back a reimagined version of Boss with Drew Carey serving

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as our host through undercover journeys that tap into the

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heart and authenticity of hardworking employees that audiences have always

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loved seeing. No premiere date yet. We're told Drew Carey

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is perhaps best known for the Drew Carey show, Whose

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Line Is It Anyway? and The Price is Right, which

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he's been hosting for like 20-something years already. Time goes fast.

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I feel like I just watched Bob Barker's last show,

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but no, it's been 20 years here. Let me look

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it up. Drew was named host in July of 2007.

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The first episode with Drew Carey's host aired October 15th, 2007.

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So 20 years.

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Wow.

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And that is your comedy news for today. Go check

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out the other podcast, Is Late Night Dead? And I'll

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see you here tomorrow.