Samantha Bee served as a correspondent on The Daily Show for 12 years, becoming its longest tenured correspondent.[1][2] She was not approached about succeeding Jon Stewart as the show's host when Stewart announced he would leave the show.[2] Bee and her husband, Jason Jones, pitched television shows to networks, and their scripted series, called The Detour, was picked up by TBS in February 2015. TBS then decided to extend their relationship with Bee to develop a late-night talk show to pair with Conan.[3][4][5][6][7]
Bee in 2011
Bee hired Jo Miller and Miles Kahn, formerly producers on The Daily Show, as executive producers for her new show. They set up a blind process for hiring writers that hid the gender and experience level of the applicants, resulting in a writing staff that was approximately half female and 30% non-white.[5][8] Kevin Fallon of The Daily Beast described the process as "revolutionary."[9] The show also hired Winter Miller to help develop a mentorship program to help further diversify the writing room.[8]
Before Full Frontal's format was finalized, Bee indicated that she would have segments that focus on news headlines, field pieces, and "grab bag" segments. She filmed a segment about how the Veterans Health Administration was not prepared to treat female soldiers,[5] and filmed a segment in Jordan. Miller, who also worked as the showrunner, indicated that the series would be more interested in injustice than in hypocrisy.[2] There were no interview guests on the series,[1] but a number of guest actors have appeared in various segments. For example, the May 9, 2016, episode featured both the singer Michelle Branch and comedian Patton Oswalt.[10][11]
In January 2018, TBS renewed Full Frontal for a third and fourth season, set to air through 2020.[31] In February 2018, a few weeks after the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, the show featured the only late TV host, The Cut's Amanda Arnold wrote, "to immediately confront the disgraced media mogul’s accusations in a way that left viewers feeling satisfied."[32] A March 2019 segment titled "#MeToon" was produced and animated by a crew of all women expounded upon sexual harassment allegations against Chris Savino and his successful union suspension process and featured interviews with a few of the female animators that were involved in his union suspension along with one of his alleged victims.[33]
Due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, on March 11, 2020, Bee announced on that night's episode of Full Frontal that future tapings would proceed without an in-studio audience.[34] The COVID-19 affected episodes were subtitled Little Show in the Big Woods and were filmed in the woods, with Bee's husband Jason Jones acting as cameraman[35] and her children running the lighting and cue cards.[36] It was the first late-night show to tape without a studio audience.[35] About the experience, Bee told The Daily Beast, "It felt important to me in terms of just keeping the lights on and keeping continuity of the show. It felt like giving us all a focus would be a good idea. And I stand by that; I think it has been good for us, to keep going, just one step in front of the other." When the show returned to studio taping, it began to originate instead from Norwalk, Connecticut; the Connecticut office of Film, Television and Digital Media was credited at the end of each episode.[37][38][39]
Cast
Bee served as host and the show had four contributors who appear in field pieces: Michael Rubens (senior field producer), Allana Harkin (co-producer),[9]Amy Hoggart,[40] and Mike Brown.[41] Harkin described the process to The Daily Beast: that they "rewrite right up until like 4:30, and we tape at 6." Contributors also included Ashley Nicole Black.[9]
Writers
The show was written by Bee, Jo Miller, Reich (2016), Black (2016–19), Kristen Bartlett,[42]Eric Drysdale (2016–17),[43]Travon Free,[44] Pat Cassels,[45] Sean Crespo,[46]Mike Drucker,[42] Mathan Erhardt,[47] Joe Grossman,[48] Miles Kahn (also executive producer),[49] Sahar Rizvi,[50] Nicole Silverberg,[51] and Melinda Taub.[52][53] In December 2017 from episode 67, Taub was promoted to head writer of the show, and Barlett in 2020 from Season 5 Episode 1,[42] while Silverberg was made writing supervisor.[51]
Bee's deal with Turner ran through 2022.[31] In July 2022, although show was "a signature program for the large cable network TBS," it was cancelled following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.[40] Brett Weitz, general manager of TBS, TNT and TruTV, strong supporter of Full Frontal left the company in May after the consolidation under Warner Bros. Discovery executive Kathleen Finch.[40]
In the United States, the first season of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee aired weekly on Mondays at 10:30p.m. ET on TBS. On November 16, 2016, it was announced that TBS renewed the show for a second season,[54] as well as moving it to Wednesdays at 10:30p.m. EST, starting January 11, 2017.[55] The original airing of the first episode was simulcast on TBS, Adult Swim, TNT, truTV, and HLN.[56]
Full Frontal's first episode drew in 2.16 million viewers[56] with subsequent episodes around the 2016 elections events drawing over 1 million.[60][61][62][63] It was one of the most anticipated shows, with its teaser on YouTube drawing 1 million views.[56]
The show was also met with critical acclaim, named one of the Best Shows of 2016 by the New York Times[64] and won Outstanding Achievement in News and Information at the 32nd Television Critics Association Awards.[65] On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 100% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee adds a female perspective to late-night TV – and one that's fresh and funny enough to deserve more than just one show a week."[66] On Metacritic, the first season holds a score of 84 out of 100, based on 16 critics, which constitutes "universal acclaim".[67]
TheWrap's Diane Gordon praised the show, saying "With Full Frontal, TBS truly has a comedy show that's sure to become part of the cultural conversation and possibly fill the void felt by Jon Stewart‘s departure. There's so much scathing, insightful, intelligent funny packed into Full Frontal and Bee's ability to land a joke is beyond impressive."[68]Vulture called Full Frontal "a formidable force of political satire. It demands your attention,"[69] and the blog named Bee's "Trump Conspiracy Theory" segment as its #1 clip on its list of "The 10 Most Important Late-Night TV Moments in 2016."[70] In March 2017, Wired's cultural critic Virginia Heffernan called Full Frontal "the most mercilessly feminist show (ever) (in history)".[71]
In June 2021, in its fifth season, New York magazine writer Jesse David Fox described it as "established" and "out of the barn."[74]
Controversies
Full Frontal aired a segment on March 8, 2017, filmed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in which the narrator, correspondent Michael Rubens said Kyle Coddington, a writer for OUTSET magazine, had "Nazi hair". At the time, Coddington was undergoing chemotherapy for brain cancer. The show apologized the next day, saying they were unaware of his condition, and donated to his medical expenses on GoFundMe.[75] Coddington stated he was unsatisfied with the apology.[76]
"Every week I strive to show the world as I see it, unfiltered. Sometimes I should probably have a filter. I accept that. Stories about 1,500 missing unaccompanied migrant children flooded the news cycle over the weekend. So last night we aired a segment on the atrocious treatment of migrant children by this administration and past administrations. Our piece attracted controversy of the worst kind... We spent the day wrestling with the repercussions of one bad word when we all should have spent the day incensed that as a nation we are wrenching children from their parents and treating people legally seeking asylum as criminals. If we are O.K. with that, then really, who are we?"[82]
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