Media: Full Frontal With Samantha Bee in the News

[TV Anonymous]

Oh, bloody hell. One less comedy talk show in my list. But we cannot say that we did not see it coming, can we?

[DoctorAtomic]

I watch on the web site, but the move to another night doesn't always bode well. 

It's not so much one less show, but one less from the female pov and issues that were covered that's the real loss. Michelle Wolf got the shaft from Netflix in the same way. 

[wknt3]

22 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

Oh, bloody hell. One less comedy talk show in my list. But we cannot say that we did not see it coming, can we?

It was pretty much inevitable, but I was hoping that since the folks in charge seemed to see the show as valuable (probably some mix of viewership numbers, especially online, the diversity issues that have been mentioned previously, and that it was actually quality programming), enough so thatit was spared in the previous purges of original scripted programming, that there would be some sort of arrangement where the show moved somewhere else. Ideally they would announce that HBO was cancelling Bill Maher and picking up the show. You think the Twitter snark is fun now...

Edited July 27, 2022 by wknt3

[ZoqFotPik]

So one thing I'm not quite clear on and I haven't been able to find a definitive answer: The show is not coming back for another season, but are there still season seven episodes left to be made or was the June 23rd episode the final one?

Edited July 27, 2022 by ZoqFotPik

[TV Anonymous]

On 7/26/2022 at 8:42 PM, wknt3 said:

It was pretty much inevitable, but I was hoping that since the folks in charge seemed to see the show as valuable (probably some mix of viewership numbers, especially online, the diversity issues that have been mentioned previously, and that it was actually quality programming), enough so thatit was spared in the previous purges of original scripted programming, that there would be some sort of arrangement where the show moved somewhere else. Ideally they would announce that HBO was cancelling Bill Maher and picking up the show. You think the Twitter snark is fun now...

What I meant by we saw it coming was actually the show itself. It is a 30-minute weekly show, yet they still had musical guests, almost constantly. That meant that the content itself was thin. Other shows have musical guests but they air 4 nights / week. The ones that air weekly (e.g. Last Week Tonight) do not have musical guests.

[aghst]

There's a Bloomberg story that David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, is under fire for only hiring white men.

This is the guy who'd have had final say on canceling shows, including FF.

[wknt3]

2 hours ago, TV Anonymous said:

What I meant by we saw it coming was actually the show itself. It is a 30-minute weekly show, yet they still had musical guests, almost constantly. That meant that the content itself was thin. Other shows have musical guests but they air 4 nights / week. The ones that air weekly (e.g. Last Week Tonight) do not have musical guests.

Most likely that was just one symptom of the larger problem that TBS didn't want to do quality scripted programming anymore. The musical guests were probably a way to cut costs and/or executive meddling. I don't think there was any problem coming up with material and they have some great pieces that drew a lot of traffic online (which as I said is probably why the show lasted while all the other original series) it was more that TBS wanted to do it as cheaply as possible and musical guests are much cheaper than field pieces.

[aghst]

Maybe they didn't have the budget to do more of the correspondent pieces.

They'd need producers, camera crew, etc. in addition to the on camera correspondents.

But they sent Sam to Paris earlier this year.

[possibilities]

You can still do issues reporting without doing field pieces. I honestly got really frustrated with the show and thought they were getting really lazy a lot of the time.  It was also annoying that the schedule for new episodes seemed totally erratic and sometimes I would forget it even existed because it only seemed to air at random times.

Whether it was because they had budget problems, or some other reason, the show was not doing well.

Amber Ruffin's show on Peacock never does field pieces, their budget appears to be in negative numbers, and it's consistently aired, always interesting and informative, and also manages to be funny.

I hope Sam and everyone else associated with Full Frontal gets recharged and comes back with another project, but I'm not so sure losing Full Frontal is the worst thing that could happen.

Of course, if the network execs are assholes, that would surely impede their morale and creativity, so I'm not saying that wasn't a factor. But the show was gasping for air and it just wasn't working anymore, IMO.

[aghst]

The Daily Show in its heyday was able to do field pieces like every night right?

Probably only Stewart was making money but it opened up opportunities for several TDS correspondents with Bee and Oliver landing their own shows

[wknt3]

Samantha Bee's cancellation hints at tough times for women and POC in late night TV

[aghst]

Supposedly Zaslav is a Trumper as is his mentor, John Malone.

Supposedly complained that CNN is too liberal and anti-Trump.

So unlikely to be a fan of FF, regardless of ratings.

Edited July 28, 2022 by aghst

[DXD526]

I didn't mind the musical acts during quarantine, I was just glad to get an episode when one came along. But continuing to have music in recent days seemed lazy. And I very much echo the complaint in the article that TBS never seemed to have a set schedule for the show. I was lucky that my DVR always picked it up, otherwise I would have missed it sometimes, because I just didn't know it was on.

Sam is funny, and I'll miss her unique voice in late night. Hope she lands somewhere where they'll give some respect to her talents. It appears that neither TBS or Comedy Central ever really did that. 

[aghst]

This article lists reasons why FF was canceled, including the fact that the exec who championed FF left in May, ratings decline, calling Ivanka Trump a "feckless cunt," the problems women's voices have had in late night.

Quote

A former late-night producer told TheWrap he thought Bee’s show was too dependent on tapping into anti-Trump outrage, especially by women, and that after Trump left office, she never found a new focus for her material.

However, Professor Denise Mann at the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television, found the cancellation “disturbing,” saying that “women get yanked from late night space where politics are debated, but remain ensconced in daytime’s domesticated space — a division of gendered social roles that dates to the Cold War era.” She pointed out, “Even Apple TV’s ‘Morning Show’ was grappling with this topic — the compliant female journalist vs. the difficult one trying to do her job.”

Read in TheWrap: https://apple.news/ATglEJQgQR6edSi7BqwuIWQ

Maybe I haven't followed it as closely but it seems like FF put out clips of segments which went viral on Youtube and social media a few years ago.

I used to watch them before I started regularly watching the show.

But the ones which people really shared were the ones ripping Trump.  So maybe there's some truth that the peak appeal of the show coincided with peak anti-Trump energy.

[DoctorAtomic]

I don't think so. Women's issues aren't really a function of who the president is nor do school shootings. Or Putin. I mean, it's she not going to talk about women's health rights? 

It's the lack of regularity, not the content. Who else had three women in the clergy of different faiths talking about abortion? 

[TV Anonymous]

On 7/28/2022 at 1:02 PM, aghst said:

Maybe they didn't have the budget to do more of the correspondent pieces.

They'd need producers, camera crew, etc. in addition to the on camera correspondents.

Last Week Tonight does not do correspondent pieces yet it wins Emmies year after year.

[Lantern7]

Looks like Sam will keep busy next year.

[aghst]

12 minutes ago, Lantern7 said:

Looks like Sam will keep busy next year.

Good for her.

But I would guess she would prefer to have her TV show because it’s less strain on her family than going on tour.

not to mention a writing staff and otHer staff to make her job and life easier.

[AnimeMania]

After Late-Night Run, Samantha Bee Leans Into Podcasting With ‘Choice Words’

Samantha Bee is launching a new podcast series, Choice Words, from Lemonada Media.

A weekly series, which launches on June 1, 2023, will have Samantha Bee sit down with celebrities, politicians, and everyone in between to discuss the biggest choices they’ve made in their lives and the ripple effects those decisions have had.

Here is a sample of what to expect:

[aghst]

First 2 episodes of the podcast popped up in my feed.

Starting to listen now, she talks briefly about her show ending and being offered a play, then thinking what to do next.