AI micro-dramas are shaking up Chinese entertainment - The Economist

Sounds like Stephen Colbert had a rough 2025 — and so did his protégé. Stand-up comedian Taylor Tomlinson — the former host of the Colbert-produced “After Midnight” — is opening up about how just months before CBS canceled “The Late Show,” she had a pretty awkward phone call with Colbert in which she told him she was quitting his show. “I spent that call with Stephen (Mr. Colbert? Not sure how to address him now) crying and apologizing before I got off the phone, shaking with shame,” Tomlinson wrote in her new memoir “Actually, Nevermind,” per an excerpt from The Hollywood Reporter. “I felt awful and guilty and yet again — disappointing.”Tomlinson hosted the improv-based “After Midnight” that aired immediately after “Colbert” on CBS for two seasons from January 2024 to June 2025. She announced her departure in March 2025. The timeline that led up to her call with Colbert makes her exit sound extra messy. The “Quarter-Life Crisis” comedian explained in her memoir that just hours after she told two executive producers about her decision to leave, CBS informed the show that “After Midnight” had been renewed for a third season.

On October 9, a college freshman posted on Xiaohongshu: "AI manhua dramas have ruined my dad. " She wrote that her father's dark circles from watching manhua dramas are even more prominent than when he took care of her during her senior year of high school; after working out after work, he skips showering first to watch until past 10 p.m., and even after being urged to take a shower, he continues watching until the wee hours of the morning, then gets up at around 5 a.m. to keep watching; he watches while using the toilet at home, and even broke his midday nap habit at work just to watch manhua dramas. When he ran out of mobile data, he secretly used her phone to add data to his own line. Later, this story was reconstructed and reposted by media outlets. On October 12, which is today, the topic "AI short dramas are hunting down middle-aged men" hit the Weibo hot search list. But the so-called "hunting" targeting middle-aged men is actually more like an entry point that fits public sentiment. Because almost at the same time, the topic "AI manhua dramas are everywhere" also made it to the hot search list.