Earlier this year, CNN made good on its pledge to inject topical comedy into its Saturday lineup by re-airing “Real Time with Bill Maher” in that evening’s 8 p.m. timeslot, one night after its HBO premiere. Maher’s long-running show is a reliable buzz-generator, often for reasons that rankle progressives. But as the Los Angeles Times reported in May, Nielsen clocked the encore as CNN’s most-watched hour on Saturdays, averaging close to 700,000 viewers.

That should bode well for “Have I Got News For You,” a limited series adaptation of the BBC's long-running news quiz show joining "Maher" on Saturdays. CNN’s version tapped former “Daily Show” correspondent Roy Wood Jr. as its host in August, naming Michael Ian Black and Amber Ruffin as team captains shortly after that.

As an unabashed Ruffin fan, I was both delighted by the announcement and somewhat worried, since the comedy writer and erstwhile host of Peacock’s “The Amber Ruffin Show” is the main reason I am a devoted “Late Night with Seth Meyers” viewer. But my anxiety was unnecessary, she assured me in our recent video conversation about her upcoming CNN gig.

“You can pry ‘Late Night with Seth Meyers’ from my cold, dead hands,” Ruffin said with a bright smile and one of the many giggles she unleashed during our long conversation. “I will never leave that show! It’s the best!”

Besides, while she’s been a writer and featured personality on “Late Night,” she wrote the revised book for the acclaimed Broadway revival of “The Wiz” and co-wrote the book for the musical version of “Some Like It Hot,” which earned her a Tony nomination. She’s also written two books, five pilots and helmed her own TV show for three years while writing for two others, “and probably other things I'm forgetting,” she said. “I mean, every writer has four tabs open on their computer with four different projects going at once.”

The format of “Have I Got News For You” is a new challenge for Ruffin, she explained. “This is a special type of improv where you have to get out the news story so that we can all laugh at your silly take on it . . . so it's neat to learn new rules of comedy,” she said. “Not that these are new rules. They're new to me. A panel vibe is a different vibe. You have to know when to take over and when to acquiesce.”

CNN’s “Have I Got News For You” also operates under very different regulations than the BBC’s show, which has been running since 1990. Since the BBC is a public service broadcaster, it is beholden to impartiality guidelines which state in part that “Our audiences should not be able to tell from BBC output the personal opinions of our journalists or news and current affairs presenters on matters of public policy, political or industrial controversy, or on ‘controversial subjects’ in any other area.” In May, this led to the last-minute host replacement of BBC's news and politics presenter, Amol Rajan, who quickly stepped down after former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called for a snap election on July 4.

Its American counterpart isn’t held to such specific political mandates other than recent statements from Warner Bros. Discovery leadership that the cable news network would strive to be more centrist. I asked Ruffin as to whether CNN expected her and her fellow “Have I Got News For You” comics to follow that guidance, along with getting other details about the 10-episode season’s vision in a wide-ranging conversation that at times made me hold back a few snort laughs.

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The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

The rules guiding the BBC’s broadcasts are different........

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