The Daily Late Nightly Show (Ladies and Gentlemen- Sam Bee!)

So 10:30 pm ET is the big debut of Full Frontal, Sam Bee’s new show on TBS. Here’s what we know about it so far-

It will be a weekly, like John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight; in fact she’s sharing studio space with him. Her offices were last used by Stephen Colbert’s Late Show transition team. Her husband Jason Jones is part of her executive producer group along with Jo Miller and Miles Kahn, all are Daily Show alumni.

There will be no desk or guests, only a short monologue the Ms. Bee will deliver standing on her set. The bulk of the show will be short films in Ms. Bee’s trademark interviewing style many of which will be directed by Razan Ghalayini, a documentary film maker who has been working with Glenn Greenwald’s The Intercept organization.

Ms. Ghalayini is the director of one of the two pieces that have been previewed where Sam Bee follows the journey of a Syrian refugee from Jordan. She speaks fluent Arabic and had just recently done filming in the region and was quite familiar with it. The other piece being promoted is about how ill-equipped the Veterans Administration is to handle the medical care of female Vets.

Finally there’s been a lot of ink about the writing staff. Ms. Bee and her team took extraordinary measures to ensure diversity and appears to have succeeded to a large extent. I won’t bore you with the process, the bottom line is that most of the TV writers who have visited the show have noted that it’s pointedly mixed to a remarkable degree especially in terms of female to male ratio.

It all sounds pretty exciting and different to me. I certainly hope Sam Bee has a hit on her hands the way John Oliver does.

As for the other guys, frankly some of their stuff works for me and some of it doesn’t. Late Show is a waste of Stephen Colbert’s talent. It’s good at times but the format is very conventional down to the relentless flacking of whatever the movie of the day is. Trevor Noah is still very raw. His interview skills are almost entirely lacking due, I think at least in part, to his unfamiliarity with U.S. culture. His monologues are better than they were but are still somewhat hit or miss. The correspondent pieces are mainly excellent.

Of the bunch I think the one who’s best (besides John Oliver who is uniformly brilliant) is Larry Wilmore who’s found a format that works for him and while his correspondent pieces are not up to Daily Show standards, his monologues and personal bits are definitely up to Stewart standards. I know the panels are considered by some to be a huge waste of time because they get unfocused and off topic with everyone simply trying to tell the funniest joke instead of exploring the issue at hand.

The New Guy

So Long, Farewell, Auf Wiedersehen, Goodbye!

Web Exclusive- Debate Debate

Trevor’s guests this week are-

• Monday 2/8: Gillian Jacobs
• Tuesday 2/9: The Suffers
• Wednesday 2/10: Olivia Wilde
• Thursday 2/11: Ben Stiller

Mr. Continuity

Nasty Talk and Tiny Hands

Larry’s panelists this week are-

• Monday 2/8: KeKe Palmer
• Tuesday 2/9: Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
• Wednesday 2/10: T.J. Miller
• Thursday 2/11: Alexis Ohanian

Mr. Mainstream

The Wild Animal Expert

Stephen’s guests this week are-

• Monday 2/8: Bill O’Reilly, Eddie George, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
• Tuesday 2/9: Olivia Wilde, Christiane Amanpour
• Wednesday 2/10: Ben Stiller, Bernie Sanders, Tao: Seventeen Samurai
• Thursday 2/11: Katie Holmes, Fred Armisen, Ty Segall and the Muggers

Friday will be a repeat.