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After seven seasons of bold jokes and witty monologues, the Emmy-nominated late-night show “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee” was canceled Monday by TBS.
The decision came as a result of a “new programming strategy,” according to a TBS spokesperson. “We are proud to have been the home of ‘Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,’ and thank Sam and the rest of the Emmy-nominated team for their groundbreaking work.”
The Twitter account for “Full Frontal” confirmed the decision on Monday afternoon.
“We’re so thankful for our loyal audience, our amazing cast, and that we get to tease the right people every week — that there wasn’t wrestling, baseball, or a very special episode of The Big Bang,” the tweet read, poking fun at the network’s events that the show was preempted throughout its run.
After 7 seasons, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee will not be returning to TBS this fall. We’re so thankful for our loyal audience, our amazing cast, and that we got to tease the right people every week—that there wasn’t wrestling, baseball, or a very special episode of The Big Bang.
— Full Frontal with Samantha B (@FullFrontalSamB) July 25, 2022
“Full Frontal,” which centered the voice of one of the few women in late-night comedy, was known for its sharp political commentary. When President Donald Trump did not attend the 2017 White House Correspondents’ Dinner, Bee created his own counterprogramming called “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner,” which aired as a special that evening. She also made controversial news of herself in 2018 when she insulted Ivanka Trump using a charged expletive; the show remained in the news cycle for weeks afterward, and eventually both the Bee and TBS apologized. And throughout her series, Bee has also been a consistent advocate for abortion rights, using “Full Frontal” to call attention to policies and politicians restricting access to the procedure.
Samantha Bee on Ivanka Trump’s comment: ‘I hate that it distracted from more important issues’
“It can be really hard” to be an avid news consumer, Bee said in a 2019 phone interview with The Washington Post. But she saw it as her job to “carve a comedic path through it.”
The cancellation of “Full Frontal” follows a trend of axing late-night shows: TBS and Conan O’Brien parted ways last year, NBC and Lily Singh ended their partnership, and James Corden is leaving “The Late Late Show” in 2023.
Samantha Bee doesn’t cover anti-abortion laws because she’s a woman. This is because laughter makes a statement.
“Bee made television history in the late-night space, paving the way for female voices in what has traditionally been, and continues to be, a male-dominated landscape,” a representative for Bee told The Washington Post in a statement Monday. The show “consistently broke down barriers with Sam and her team, boldly using political satire to entertain, inform and empower viewers while taking on critically underrepresented stories, especially for women.”
But with only The Amber Ruffin Show as the only female voice in the late-night circuit, there’s a serious lack of gender diversity on the late-night circuit, and some of Bee’s work will be hard to replicate, especially as the United States considers the overturning of Roe v. Wade. In the same 2019 interview with The Post, Bee said she would spend hours advocating for abortion “regardless of” her gender.
“I don’t feel any other responsibility because I’m the last woman alive,” she said.
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