Say Farewell to The Opposition—And Welcome Back to the Real Jordan Klepper

Say Farewell to The Opposition—And Welcome Back to the Real Jordan Klepper

As The Opposition entered its final week on Monday, host Jordan Kleppers far-right-inspired characte..

As The Opposition entered its final week on Monday, host Jordan Kleppers far-right-inspired character began having a bit of a meltdown. Hunkered down in his bunker, with his “citizen journalist” correspondents all formulating their own frenzied plans as the wolves of Viacom gathered at the shows gates, the blowhard pundit initiated a fire sale—the ShOpposition—on Wednesday night in order to unload products such as “Fear Goggles” and a “Slippery Slope n Slide.” The real Jordan Klepper, however, was far more composed when asked how he was feeling about the shows end. In an interview, Klepper regarded The Opposition with pride—but said hes also ready to shed the “asshole” character hes been playing.

“This last week of The Opposition, were really excited. Were really proud of the pieces were doing, and looking back at the things weve done over this past year—and then also heartbroken to have to say goodbye to this world that weve created,” Klepper said. “So, definitely feeling a lot of human emotions right now. . . . I go back to my improv days, where you get used to living in the moment, enjoying what youre doing, and feel no sense of permanence.”

The Opposition was always a delicate high-wire act: a late-night show in the vein of The Colbert Report, but reconfigured for the Trump era. Klepper and his eccentric, conspiracy theory-driven correspondents embodied the paranoia of the far right, tackling the same stories as the rest of late night, but from a farcical perspective. The concept worked, until it didnt: earlier this month, Comedy Central announced that after roughly nine months, The Opposition would draw to a close.

But in the same announcement, the network also confirmed that Klepper would go straight to work on a new series, tentatively titled Klepper. The new show will be a half-hour weekly venture, just like Kleppers current program, which runs nightly Monday through Thursday at 11:30. (Theres no official replacement for The Oppositions old time slot yet.) The plan for the new series is to turn Klepper loose in the field, capitalizing on what the network described as his greatest strength—improvisatory interviews with real people—while perhaps incorporating a few additional correspondents.

As he moves from one series to the next, Klepper will bring with him Opposition executive producers Stuart Miller, Kim Gamble, and Trevor Noah, as well as other staffers. But first, The Opposition must take its final bow Thursday night, when the shows elaborate in-universe lockdown narrative will reach its conclusion. “Were building a final check-in as to how the citizen journalists are either going to fight or flee,” Klepper said of the finale. “We reveal where the bunker has lived all along, and then I finally get to literally throw some punches at these people that Ive been verbally throwing punches at for a while.”

Comedy Central decided to end The Opposition partially because of the way that the conspiracy-driven Trump era has taken shape—not with the Mike Cernoviches and Alex Joneses of the world standing front and center, as Klepper and Co. thought it would, but with Donald Trump himself continuing to drive the narrative as even his most outlandish ideas become accepted right-wing doctrine.

“I think what we saw was the voices on the fringe right became the voices on Fox News. . . . Sean Hannity became the mouthpiece of state-run television in a way that basically took the mantle from Alex Jones. It was like, I can outdo your crazy, and Ive got a bigger bullhorn,” Klepper said. “These were not only voices that were on the fringe and died out. There were voices that got elevated to the point that this is what most Americans tune in to late at night.”

The best way to respond to that dynamic, Comedy Central President Kent Alterman told Deadline, is to unchain Klepper from his bunker and send him out into the world; after all, it was the field work Klepper did for The Daily Show, particularly his pieces set at Trump rallies, that inspired the network to give Klepper his own show in the first place. By doing so, Klepper will also be joining a growing group of late-night hosts who place an emphasis on getting out from behind the desk—such as Conan OBrien, who has vowed to do more travel specials, and Wyatt Cenac, who just launched the field-based Problem Areas on HBO.

“I think what Ive always loved about the field, at its simplest, [is] you get to go out and experience something as opposed to sit back and comment on it,” Klepper said. “You get to hear the story from the person who had lived through that story, and that is powerful. In a day and age where we are constantly responding to people on TV telling us what the world looks like, the ability to go out and to see it up front—that just gives you so many more avenues of commentary, and so many more ways in which to tell stories.”

The Oppositions inventive field work has already built a strong foundation for these types of stories—as when Klepper interviewed Cory Booker on a 10-year-olds bed along with a roomful of teenage activists, who asked questions and shared their experiences of a world in which school shootings have become all too common. Klepper loves finding ways to catch politicians off guard: “Theres so many more opportunities for earnest responses. When weve talked about this new show, we pointed to that. Lets take risks; lets be in that space.” As anyone who has followed Kleppers work knows, gun control has long been a topic the comedian is passionate about—which might be why it inspired some of The Oppositions best work. It seems safe to expect more work in that vein on the new show.

Will Jordan-the-real-guy miss Jordan-the-character at all? The comedian said hes enjoyed the challenge of playing a heightened version of himself—but even so, he continued, “its difficult to walk a tightrope sometimes. There are topics that I wish I didnt have to filter through an assholes point of view.” And challenging as The Opposition has been, hes ready to return to more earnest work.

“Im proud of [The Opposition] and Im proud of the people who have come together to make it,” Klepper said. “I think we were able to jump on board and tell stories from a different point of view. I hope people who watched it and people who engaged with it enjoyed that voice. And I hope theyll be with us as that voice continues to find itself—perhaps in a six-foot-four body that sounds more like myself.”

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Laura BradleyLaura Bradley is a Hollywood writer for VanityFair.com.

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