Full Frontal with Samantha Bee Information

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is an American news comedy program that airs on Mondays on TBS in the United States and on The Comedy Network in Canada. The show premiered on February 8, 2016, and is hosted by comedian Samantha Bee, previously a correspondent on The Daily Show.

On November 16, 2016, TBS renewed the show for a second season to premiere in 2017.

Production

Samantha Bee served as a correspondent on The Daily Show for 12 years, becoming its longest tenured correspondent. She was not approached about succeeding Jon Stewart as the show's host when Stewart announced he would leave the show. 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.

Bee hired Jo Miller and Miles Kahn, formerly producers of The Daily Show, as executive producers for her new show. They set up a blinded process for hiring writers that hid the gender and experience level of the applicants, resulting in a writing staff that is approximately half female and 30% non-white. The show is written by Samantha Bee, Ashley Nicole Black, Pat Cassels, Eric Drysdale (episodes 12-present), Mathan Erhardt, Joe Grossman, Jo Miller, Jason Reich, and Melinda Taub. The show hired Winter Miller to help develop a mentorship program to help diversify the writing room.

Before the show'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, and filmed a segment in Jordan. Showrunner Jo Miller indicated that the show will be more interested in injustice than in hypocrisy. There are no interview guests on the series, but a number of guest actors have appeared in various segments. E.g. the May 9 episode features both the singer Michelle Branch and comedian Patton Oswalt.

Full Frontal shares a studio with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, and Bee's offices previously housed Stephen Colbert and his staff while renovations were taking place at the Ed Sullivan Theater for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Full Frontal is the only currently airing late-night talk show in the United States which is hosted by a woman.

On October 31, 2016, Full Frontal aired an interview Samantha Bee conducted with President Obama.

Broadcast

In the United States, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee airs weekly on Mondays at 10:30 p.m. EST on TBS. In Canada, the show airs on The Comedy Network. In Australia, the series is broadcast on SBS 2. In New Zealand, the series is broadcast on DUKE.

Episodes

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Reception

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee has received critical acclaim, holding a first-season score of 84 on Metacritic. 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."

Awards and nominations

In 2016, the series was nominated for an Emmy Award for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series. The same year, the series won the Television Critics Association Award for Outstanding Achievement in News and Information. In the 2016 Gold Derby Awards, Samantha Bee won the Gold Derby TV Award for Best Variety Performer and the show was nominated for Best Variety Series.