The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo

The Muppet character Elmo hosts the late-night talk show. The American program's main curricular goals are centered around children's bedtime routines, of which each episode demonstrates a different aspect.^[2] The program focuses primarily on long-form, in-depth celebrity interviews, designed to help younger viewers connect with others on a deeper level.^[9]

The format of the program changed to a game show for the second season, which is alternatively titled The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo: Game Edition. Child contestants play games and compete in challenges with celebrity guests.^[10]

• Ryan Dillon as Elmo^[11]
• David Rudman as Cookie Monster,^[11] Baby Bear, Sully, Two-Headed Monster (right head)
• Jennifer Barnhart as Mama Bear,^[11] Zoe
• Peter Linz as Ernie,^[11] Herry Monster
• Eric Jacobson as Bert, Grover,^[11] Oscar the Grouch, Two-Headed Monster (left head)
• Carmen Osbahr as Rosita, Ovejita
• Leslie Carrara-Rudolph as Abby Cadabby
• Frankie Cordero as Rudy
• Stephanie D'Abruzzo as Prairie Dawn,^[11] Mae (Elmo's mom)
• Matt Vogel as Big Bird, Count von Count,^[11] Biff, Mr. Johnson
• Tyler Bunch as Louie (Elmo's dad)
• Martin P. Robinson as Telly Monster, Freddy (Rudy's dad)
• Pam Arciero
• John Kennedy

The Israeli version features Moishe Oofnik, the Yiddish-influenced curmudgeon famous from Sesame Street's Israeli adaptations, as Elmo's sidekick.^[9]

In Southeast Asia, the series is aired through HBO Go and episodes are released alongside their HBO Max releases in the United States. In Canada, the series premiered on Treehouse TV on September 5, 2020.^[13][14] In New Zealand, the series premiered on TVNZ OnDemand on January 8, 2021.^[15] The show began airing on Cartoon Network in the United States on January 28, 2022, under the Cartoonito brand.

The series premiered on public television on February 10, 2023,^[7] on the PBS Kids 24/7 channel, where reruns aired until May 10, 2024.^[8] Each broadcast included one 15-minute episode of the show, followed by PBS Kids short series, such as City Island and Jelly, Ben & Pogo, to fill the remaining time of the half-hour timeslot.

Sesame Workshop also produced an Israel adaptation of the series, titled The Talk Show with Elmo (תוכנית האירוח של אלמו), which premiered on Hop! Channel in October 2022. 14 episodes have been produced.^[9]

The pilot show was directed by Benjamin Lehmann and was produced in January 2019,^[16][17] and features special guest Kacey Musgraves performing "Rubber Duckie".^[18] Full production of the series took place in November and December 2019.^[19]

In addition to Musgraves, guests for the first season also included Jimmy Fallon, Jonas Brothers, John Oliver, Victor Joel Ortiz (uncredited) portraying Batman, Jason Sudeikis, Kwame Alexander, Sara Bareilles, Miles Brown, Ciara, Andy Cohen, Dan + Shay, Josh Groban, Mykal-Michelle Harris, H.E.R., Hoda Kotb, Lil Nas X, Blake Lively, John Mulaney, Pentatonix, Ben Platt, Jonathan Van Ness, Olivia Wilde and Sofia Carson.^[20][21] On March 29, 2021, HBO Max renewed the series for a second season.^[4]

The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gave the first season of the show an 81% "fresh" rating based on 16 reviews with an average rating of 7/10. The critical consensus is: "With great guests, fun games, and a lot of silly songs, The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo is a fitting bedtime show for tots that parents may even enjoy as well".^[22] Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100, assigned a rating score of 70 based on 8 critic reviews, meaning favorable reviews for the first season.^[23]

The show has been reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Week, and Comic Book Resources among others.^{[24][25][26][27]}