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Neil DeGrasse Tyson, America's Favorite Scientist, Experiments With Late-Night TV

This article is more than 8 years old.

Neil DeGrasse Tyson is bummed that he can’t wear pajamas to work.

The famed astrophysicist has been running his StarTalk podcast for years. But tonight, he’s dressing up and bringing the show to late-night TV for an abbreviated 10-episode season on the National Geographic Channel.

StarTalk, for those unfamiliar with the podcast, features Tyson chatting with a guest or two about science-y topics, with past episodes covering gravity, problems in science journalism and Star Trek. Guests range from movie stars and political luminaries to professors, entrepreneurs and, yes, an astronaut (in an episode to air later in the season). StarTalk’s televised incarnation follows much the same format, but with Tyson’s stomping ground, the Hall of the Universe at the American Museum of Natural History, in the background.

“We originally thought of what it would be like to just bring cameras into the studio,” says Tyson. “But I work here at the American Museum of Natural History. This is good real estate here.”

StarTalk has already undergone some evolution in its time on the air. The first episode of the show was released as a podcast in June 2009 and went on to gain a loyal following; as of this writing, its latest episode has more than 246,000 plays logged on SoundCloud. Tyson now hosts special StarTalk Live! tapings, and the show airs a total of 25 times a week on SiriusXM satellite radio. But at first, Tyson didn’t want to grow more by making the television leap.

Executives at Fox , which owns the National Geographic Channel, first approached him about starring in his own show after he hosted last year’s Cosmos, Tyson says. “And I said I have no interest. No. No. I didn't start life wanting to be a TV star. No.”

That came as a surprise, since he’d just starred in a hit 13-episode series. But he views Cosmos as more of a “legacy” than a TV show, he says. Not wanting to add another project to his plate, Tyson and the executives hit on a compromise: “I said if I were to do any television, it would be because somebody wanted to film my radio show.” After some discussion, the executives agreed. It would be an experiment -- and it would air during the late-night talk show block.

The setting is more grand than he’s used to -- there’s more “window dressing,” including the fact that he can’t wear sweatpants -- but it’s a good look. “Things have to look better” for television, he explains, “but that’s not a problem, the look and feel of things. It’s an experiment! We’re going to jump species.”

But really, besides the medium and the swanky trappings, not much is changing. The show still features Tyson chatting with interesting people about interesting things, all with a scientific bent.

Tyson is emphatic that this isn’t just a show for astronomy nerds, and is careful to highlight that most of the show’s guests are actually not scientists. Tyson is first and foremost a teacher bent on bringing science to the masses. Describing his mission, he says, “We’re trying to bring science to the public, bring the universe down to earth.” (He’s not alone: America’s other favorite science teacher, Bill Nye, regularly makes appearances on the StarTalk podcast.)

The show couldn’t come at a better time. The success of shows like The Big Bang Theory -- which sneaks real science into what is otherwise a run-of-the-mill sitcom -- demonstrates that the public “has an appetite for the universe,” Tyson contends. Maybe a late-night talk show is just the way to feed it.

Who among us did not take a Hubble photo and put it on their screensaver?” he asks. “People’s access to and interest in the universe knows no bounds. And StarTalk is on that wave. There’s a pop culture threshold that you cross, and suddenly science is everywhere.”

StarTalk premieres April 20 at 11:00 EDT. Don’t worry if you miss an episode or two -- the “experiment” is apparently so good that executives have already ordered a second season.