- Hi, I'm Scott Feinberg from The Hollywood Reporter,
and I am here with Samantha Bee from Full Frontal.
Thank you for joining us.
It's a-- - Thank you.
- If you're hearing anything in the background,
it's because this is a celebration of Samantha Bee
and Full Frontal tonight.
- It's a wild party happening outside.
- Goin' out there, right? - Yeah, oh!
- Well, it's good to have you on the West Coast,
we don't normally-- - Thank you.
have you out here.
So I guess I wanted to just go back to the origin story
of Full Frontal, - Mm-hm.
- What was it that after 12 years of the Daily Show,
longest serving, first female correspondent there,
what led you to sort of take a big chance and leave that,
to try, you know, go out on your own, at TBS,
a whole new thing?
- Honestly, I will say the faith of TBS is what...
- Yeah.
- Allowed me to do that, you know, they approached me.
They really did approach me, and they were like, we--
This is so-- It's-- (laughs)
I say with a lot of emphasis, because it's very--
I think it's very uncommon for a network to say,
"Hi, we believe in you, and we're interested
"to know what you would like to do,
"if you would like to do it here."
- Right, that's true. - So that is a very rare gift.
- And maybe the first time people really started
talking about the show was in 2015, before it even debuted,
we saw this silly photo in Vanity Fair.
- Right.
I think it was like a dozen men in tuxedos
and looking like it was out of Mad Men,
and this was supposedly the late-night field of hosts.
- Yes.
And people said "Wait a minute.
"We've-- I think you're missing somebody."
And you, your graphics department... (laughs)
- Not even.
- Stepped in-- (laughs)
- No, not even.
- No, I mean-- (laughs)
I mean hey, my graphics department
was like two people, basically.
- (laughs) Right.
Yeah, it was that big landscape
of the late-night hosts, and they were all
men in suits holding cocktails.
And there was a real-- There was a gap in the picture,
at the-- Like, I mean, you know, accidental...
- Right, right.
- On their behalf. - Yes.
But right at the seam there was just this big hole missing.
And my friend Alana texted me and she was like,
"Wait a second, check this out!"
And then people were tweeting it at me,
and I was like, "Oh my God!"
- Right.
And then my heart started beating, and then Miles Kahn,
who is now an executive producer of the show,
had this weird photo of me--
- Well, and it was-- - As a centaur.
- A lot of people, first of all, loved the idea
of putting you in as a centaur, but also it showed, I think,
you know, that so many people were itching for--
- Yeah, yeah. - You to be there, right?
- I mean, it was--
People really responded to it, and it made me feel--
It made me feel very happy that we were about
to make a show.
I thought, "Okay."
You know, because you kind of make a show in a vacuum,
and you're like, "Oh, I wonder if anyone's interested
in this?"
And then all of a sudden, people did care; I could see it.
It was-- It physicalized that for me.
- Right, so in 2016, when it actually
went on the air for the first time,
you became the first female ever
to host a late night satire show,
it's a long speech there. - Oh, I love it!
- But what-- I mean, first of all--
- That's crazy. - It is!
- Because when you say-- (laughs)
- Well, why did it take so long
and what do you think-- Just--
Not that everything's about gender,
but in this case, what does-- What might a female host
of a late night satire show bring to the table
that that whole photograph of men might not?
- Well, I-- You know what I think that there was...
It's amazing that there-- That the show
had not existed before, but you know, I mean, we--
When I was working at the Daily Show,
and pitching shows elsewhere, I do recall
that there was a spirit in the air that was like,
"Well, why would we do another--
"Why would we do another political satire show?
We have one." - Right, right.
- We have this one, that's all we need.
And now there's-- There's room for other peoples' voices.
And so I'm not sure why it took so long?
But I benefited from it.
- Yeah, yeah, no, well...
So how did you arrive at the idea of 21 minutes
once a week as a-- You know some--
We have-- There's a whole array of different formats
for the folks that are sort of in your field.
- Sure.
Why is that the one that makes the most sense for you?
- Well, because-- Well for one thing,
I like to do fieldwork.
I like to go out in the world.
I like to go interview people offsite.
And doing a strip show just does not accommodate that.
Then you would be-- I mean I would be working
around the clock, and I do have a life to live.
- Right. (laughs)
So you know, really one-third of the show
takes place somewhere else, and that is a lot of travel.
There's a lot that goes into that.
There's a lot that goes into the whole product,
but I knew that we would not be able to do that piece of it
if we stripped the show out. - Right.
- I didn't want to hear myself four nights a week.
(both laughing)
I'm great with one.
- And you were saying, when we previously sat down,
that it's almost unimaginable, right?
Because you guys are killing yourselves...
In some ways it's hard-- In a lot of ways it may be harder
to do one a week, where you've gotta make that great, right?
- You're processing things in a different way.
I don't wanna say it's harder,
because it is very hard to do a strip play.
It is very hard to do four shows a week, really really hard.
It's grueling, actually.
This is not that; it's difficult in a different way.
It's difficult in a kind of a processing way.
And you know, we give a lot of attention
to the stories that we tell.
So you know, it's all-- It's all hard work.
- Yeah, yeah. - Just in different ways.
- Deeply researched stuff you guys do.
What was the-- I think people should remember
the show started during the run-up to the election,
not afterwards. - Yes.
- Was the-- Kind of-- What you have called
I think the outraged woman persona,
that you sort of have, like somebody with a little chip
on their shoulder about idiocy, which is understandable,
that existed from the start, right?
- It did, yeah.
That was very intentional.
I mean, listen, it's-- It was intentional in the sense
that there's no way that-- I mean, I didn't have any idea
that the show would last, you know what I mean?
- Right. (laughs)
- Like, I thought, "Okay, what we'll do is, we'll--
"We have this, we have a couple of shows to play with,
"like, we have an order for six episodes.
"So we'll make six episodes of TV
"that we've always wanted to make,
"make it just how we want to make it.
"And then when we get canceled,
"we will know that we have this little gem
"of this six-show run, like a calling card for other things,
"and we will just have done exactly what we wanted to do."
And as it turns out, it had legs.
And it was fine, and it was sustainable.
- Right, right.
Well, and we should just note that in the first season,
after one season, viewership was up 167%,
especially though, with adults 18-34,
why did young people in particular
respond to that persona, the whole show?
- The one thing that I think you can tell,
when you watch the show, is that it really
comes from the heart, it comes from a deep place?
- Right, right.
- You know, it comes from all of our voices,
kind of merging, into this stream.
And I think young people crave...
Young people, let's talk about what the youngs want...
(Scott laughing) The key demographic...
(laughs) No, I think people just like--
I think people across the board just wanna see something
that feels like it comes from something real?
- [Scott] Yeah, yeah. - That's what I want.
- That's the only thing that I like to watch,
that's why I can barely watch anything.
(both laughing)
- So what changed on election night 2016,
in terms of-- Obviously we know what changed in the country,
but in terms of your job, and even your day-to-day
interactions with people out in the world?
I know social media for instance became--
It started to look different.
- Social media started to look different immediately,
and I think-- I just think the...
There was just something in the air.
Everything just shifted that day,
and it remains true to this day.
- Yeah. - But you know, I do feel...
- Yes.
- Agree with me or disagree with me,
at least there's a sense that we're all in it together?
- Yeah, right (laughs)
That's a very positive way of looking at it.
- (laughs) Right?
- Well, so is-- Did it, from a logistical standpoint
of putting on a show every week,
did life get-- I know this is a selfish way
of looking at it. - Sure.
- But, did doing the show get easier or harder when you have
this kind of buffoonery happening all the time?
- I don't think it got easy-- It did not get easier.
It's not always easier when there's so much to choose from.
(Scott laughing)
You know, and things move so quickly that you can be--
You know you can walk away from your phone,
and then five hours later everything looks different.
So that's actually really a frustration.
It would be nice just to have like a just a tiny element
of predictability?
- (laughs) Right. - I really do crave that.
- You could, you would be okay with a sort of
more normal situation in the White House?
- Just like if it was 25% more stable?
- Yeah, okay; right, right.
- We would all benefit. - All benefit. (laughs)
- We would all be in a better place.
- So, in the last year, the show won an Emmy
for the White House Correspondents parody
that you guys did-- Satire that you did.
Nominated for Variety Talk Show, which is a big thing,
What is it about the year since that recognition now,
because we're about to come through another cycle of this,
is there an episode that you're proudest of
from this past season? - Hmm.
I think our Weinstein coverage was really strong.
- Yeah.
I was really, really proud of that.
That was-- That was really...
I'm proud of the way that we've handled
that material, for sure. - Yeah, yeah.
- I would say that really stands out for me.
I'm proud of our Puerto Rico episode.
We did a special on Puerto Rico;
really really proud of that too.
I'm proud of the show; I think we work really hard.
And we're really-- Like just an awesome team of people.
And they really care about everybody, and I think that--
I hope it shows.
- Yeah, you guys are doing a great job.
- Thank you.
Thank you for fitting us in while you're out here.
- Thank you, it's my pleasure.