Poker After Dark is an hour-long poker television program that originally aired on NBC, premiering on January 1, 2007. The series was canceled on December 3, 2011, following the "Black Friday" criminal case, which involved major sponsor Full Tilt Poker as one of the defendants. The show rebooted on August 14, 2017, with appearances from Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari. Poker After Dark episodes are now filmed exclusively at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino, and distributed on video streaming service PokerGO. For its first two seasons, both of which originally aired in 2007, the show was presented by Shana Hiatt. The host for season 3 was Marianela Pereyra, and Leeann Tweeden took over starting with season 4. When the series returned on PokerGO in 2017, Drea Renee took over as lead presenter. Veronica Brill was introduced as the sideline reporter during season 12. All seasons have contained voice-over commentary by Oliver "Ali" Nejad.

Summary

The Poker After Dark format featured an "intimate look at one table as it develops over the week." Blinds start at $100/$200 and slowly escalate. Commentator Ali Nejad's commentary is limited, allowing viewers to hear much of the table talk among the players, all of whom are mic'ed. (The table talk occasionally reveals that the "week-long" series is taped in one long session.) The series was originally structured as a series of week-long No Limit Texas hold 'em mini-tournaments for six top poker professionals. Each week the players vied for a $120,000 winner-takes-all prize pool, with each paying a $20,000 buy-in. By the end of the fifth show, a winner is determined. The sixth show was a "director's cut" that includes excerpts from the action from the previous five days, interspersed with talking heads commentary from the participants. Beginning with Season 4, the producers began to experiment with different formats, including no-limit cash games, and a double-elimination Heads Up battle between the first 4 winners of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship. Also, Seasons 3, 4 and 5 had a "Dream Table," pitting an amateur against five pros.

Broadcast

Poker After Dark aired six times a week, at 2:05 a.m. ET (1:05 CT) Tuesday through Saturday, and then at 1:00 a.m. ET (12:00 CT) on Sundays, though times vary according to the preferences of the affiliates. The early Sunday show is a "director's cut" weekly summary of the previous week's shows. Several NBC affiliates, most notably those owned by Post-Newsweek Stations, Barrington Broadcasting, some Raycom Media stations, WBBH-TV in Fort Myers, Florida, and the LDS Church-owned KSL-TV in Salt Lake City refused to air the show due to management or locality objections against programs featuring gambling (the Post-Newsweek stations also refused to carry Face the Ace in August 2009), while other stations did not carry it due to existing syndication contracts precluding it from airing the series or to retain control of their overnight schedules. It was not aired entirely in the state of Texas due to the state's strict gambling laws. NBC abruptly stopped airing Poker After Dark on September 23, 2011, a few days after Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, issued a statement alleging production underwriter Full Tilt Poker had perpetrated a Ponzi scheme on its customers. Replacing the show was a rebroadcast of the Hoda Kotb/Kathie Lee Gifford-hosted fourth hour of Today, and on the weekends, a second episode of In Wine Country from San Francisco Bay Area NBC station KNTV. NBC Sports has since removed their poker section entirely from their webpage, and previous episodes have been removed from Hulu. Although NBC did not issue a definitive statement regarding the schedule change or the future of the show, NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications Adam Freifeld has stated that NBC will "continue to evaluate our poker programming." Since 2017, Poker After Dark has aired live each month exclusively on PokerGO. Full replays and highlight recaps are also available on demand for each episode.

International

In Canada Poker After Dark aired afternoons and late nights on Rogers Sportsnet and, since fall 2009 on the French network V. In France Poker After Dark airs at night on RTL9. In Germany, it airs on SPORT1, with commentary provided by Michael Körner. In Ireland, Poker After Dark airs on Setanta Ireland and Setanta Sports 1 on most weeknights with little change from the US version. In The Netherlands, it airs on Veronica; episodes feature the original English commentary with Dutch subtitles. In Sweden, Poker After Dark airs on afternoons and nights on TV4 Sport and on TV 10 weekday nights at 01:30. In Denmark, it airs at night on TV3+. In Italy, Poker After Dark airs at night on POKERItalia24. In Poland, Poker After Dark airs during evenings on Sportklub and Sport Klub+; commentary is provided by Paweł Majewski and Marcin Grzywacz.. In Russia, the show airs on 7TV at 11:30 pm every day until the Febral, and now shows on REN-TV at 3:00 pm.

Episodes

Season 1 (2007)

Season 1 was taped at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Season 2 (2007)

Season 2 was taped in May 2007 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas.

Season 3 (2008)

Season 3 was taped in October 2007 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas.

Season 4 (2008)

Season 4 was taped in April 2008 at the South Point Casino in Las Vegas. Season 4 episode titles and presumed seating order taken from NBC's Web site.

Season 5 (2009)

Most of Season 5 was taped December 19–21, 2008 at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas. The season's first three weeks include episodes originally announced as Season 4 episodes and were taped at South Point.

Season 6 (2010)

Season 6 was taped in October 2009 at the Golden Nugget Las Vegas and is scheduled to have 13 weeks of episodes.

Season 7 (2011)

Season 7 took place from the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, and was scheduled for 13 weeks of new episodes. The program was pulled from the schedule during this season after episode 48, and as a consequence weeks 9-13 never aired on NBC but are available on PokerGO.

Season 8 (2017)

Season 8 took place from inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino. Unlike the previous seven seasons, Season 8 would follow a new format of broadcasting live streams of each day of play, along with providing daily recaps of the action exclusively on PokerGO.

Season 9 (2018)

Season 9 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino. Each day of play was live streamed exclusively on PokerGO and would be available on demand, along with daily recaps of the action.

Season 10 (2019)

Season 10 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort and Casino. Each day of play was live-streamed exclusively on PokerGO and would be available on-demand, along with daily recaps of the action.

Season 11 (2020)

Season 11 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino. Each day of play was live-streamed exclusively on PokerGO and would be available on-demand, along with daily recaps of the action. Season 11 was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only featured two weeks of play.

Season 12 (2020-21)

Season 12 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino. After each day of play being live-streamed on PokerGO for seasons 8 to 11, Poker After Dark returned to an episodic format released weekly for Season 12.

Season 13 (2021)

Season 13 was filmed inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino. Episodes were released weekly on Mondays for Season 13.

Results and notes

Results from cash game weeks, which Poker After Dark introduced in Season 4 and continued in Season 5, Season 6, and Season 7, are also omitted.

Season 1 (2007)

Season 2 (2007)

Season 3 (2008)

Season 4 (2008)

Weeks 1 and 7 were Cash Games #1 and #2, and are omitted from the results table.

Season 5 (2009)

Seven of the 16 weeks during season 5—Weeks 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 15, 16—were cash games, and are omitted from the results table.

Season 6 (2010)

Six of the 13 weeks during season 6—Weeks 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, and 12—were cash games, and are omitted from the results table.

Season 7 (2011)

As of April 9, 2011, 2 of the 4 weeks aired from season 6 were cash games, and are omitted from the results table. Week 11 wasn't originally aired on NBC, but are now available on PokerGO.

Season 8 (2017)

Only 3 weeks during Season 8 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 9 (2018)

Only 1 week during Season 9 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 10 (2019)

Only 3 weeks during Season 10 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 11 (2020)

Season 11 was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only featured two weeks which were both cash games.

Season 12 (2021)

Only 1 week during Season 12 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Season 13 (2021)

Only 1 week during Season 13 featured a high stakes sit & go, other episodes featured cash games and are omitted from the results table.

Reception

In the U.S., the show had some early ratings success: during season one's second week, it attracted on average a larger audience among adults 18-34 than The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson did the same week, even though the latter is broadcast 90 minutes earlier.

Sponsorship

Full Tilt Poker regularly advertised during Poker After Dark broadcasts, and in some countries, Full Tilt Poker is included in the show's title, which for a time prompted players associated with a rival site (Poker Stars) to stop appearing on the show. Full Tilt Poker held promotional tournaments that offered a seat on the show as the grand prize. The first of these winners, Ken Light, appeared in the first week of Season 3, and was said to have picked his own opponents, though Light later said on the show itself that he was only asked to provide a list of his favorite players and that he did not know that players from the list would join him on the show.