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It’s Official. ‘Desus & Mero’ Duo Exiting Viceland For Showtime Deal

It’s Official. ‘Desus & Mero’ Duo Exiting Viceland For Showtime Deal

Viceland is about to lose one of its most popular shows. It’s official. The innovative late-night talk show “Desus & Mero” will exit Viceland for a deal, now confirmed with Showtime.

The duo Desus Nice and  The Kid Mero hosted their own daily late-night talk show on Viceland for two seasons. “Desus & Mero” will end its run on June 28.

Their new show, set to begin in 2019, will be produced by Showtime in New York, and executive produced by Desus Nice, The Kid Mero, and Victor Lopez.

“We have waited a long time to enter the talk-show space, and we were only going to do it if we felt like we had the next big thing,” Showtime Networks President and CEO David Nevins said. “Desus and Mero feel like exactly that.”

From the start, the Viceland show was a success. “Debuting in October 2016, ‘Desus & Mero’ delivered a fresh take on current events, the culture at large and day-to-day life through the eyes of two friends born and raised in the Bronx. The duo gained internet fame in 2013 with a podcast (‘The Bodega Boys’) and web series (‘Desus vs. Mero’), which they parlayed into roles on MTV’s ‘Guy Code.’ Vice then poached them in 2016 for the late-night series,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“Desus & Mero” was filmed daily from the VICE Media Headquarters in Brooklyn. Talking about news, pop culture, and everyday life, the hosts were able to attract a wide range of A-List guests, including Rachel Maddow, actress Rashida Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Jesse Williams, Anthony Anderson, Aubrey Plaza, Whoopi Goldberg, Larry Wilmore, Al Sharpton, Jimmy Fallon, Issa Rae, Seth Meyers, Danny McBride, Walton Goggins, Terry Crews, and Seth Rogen. But their approach to interviews was unique.

Desus, left, and The Kid Mero, of Desus & Mero, arrive at the NBA Awards at Basketball City at Pier 36 on Monday, June 26, 2017, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

 

“In February, Desus playfully introduced MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow as ‘our homegirl from the streets.’ ‘What hood you reppin?’ he asked the host, who responded ‘uh, Western Massachusetts.’ When activist Janet Mock stopped by to promote her memoir about navigating her 20s as a transgender woman of color, Desus and Mero devoted equal amounts of time to quizzing the Hawaii native about Spam. Rapper French Montana talked about fasting for Ramadan and excitedly recalled winning an ESPN bowling tournament,” The Washington Post reported.

It all made for good entertainment and the two hosts, who both hail from immigrant backgrounds, became the “It” boys of Late Night. Desus (real name: Daniel Baker) is the son of Jamaican parents and Mero’s (Joel Martinez) parents are from the Dominican Republic.

It all started in 2008, when the two who had met prior as teenagers, reconnected on Twitter. At the time Mero was a high school aide and Desus was writing for a small-business magazine. They started joking on social media about their day-to-day lives. “As they beefed up their social media followings, Complex approached them to do a podcast called ‘Desus vs. Mero,’ which led to a Web series of the same name. The pair eventually landed stints on two MTV2 shows, ‘Guy Code’ and Charlamagne Tha God’s ‘Uncommon Sense,’ where they mused about pop culture, relationships and more,” The Washington Post reported.

Now there’s official word about the deal with Showtime.

Showtime has closed a deal for its first weekly late-night show starring Desus & Mero, according to Deadline. The half-hour program, set to debut in 2019, will feature Desus and Mero “speaking highly off the cuff and chatting with guests at the intersection of pop culture, sports, music, politics and more.”

Viceland tried to keep the duo onboard with a new deal but they got an opportunity they felt they couldn’t refuse, Deadline reported.

 

This article was updated at 10:05 a.m. on June 19. An earlier version was published on June 18. Dana Sanchez contributed to this report.