Oh Shit, Brexit | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS

Oh Shit, Brexit | Full Frontal with Samantha Bee | TBS When Full Frontal With Samantha Bee debuted on TBS in February, after months of speculation about what it might mean for Bee to be the lone woman anchoring a late-night news show, its snarling theme song quickly made the host's intentions clear: You've got them all by the balls, causing waterfalls, Stone walls, bar brawls, common stalls that cause 'em all. To you they crawl body sprawl, smokin' Pall Malls, close calls, stand tall, Doll, you make them feel so small — and they love it. These "fuck you if you don't like it" lyrics come courtesy of "Boys Wanna Be Her," from Peaches's 2006 album Impeach My Bush. The song is explicit and defiant, straightforward and smirking as it dares you to blink. When paired with Full Frontal's title sequence — in which the comedian stomps into an arena to do battle — it's intimidating as hell. In other words, "Boys Wanna Be Her" is a perfect fit for Full Frontal — not to mention a perfect description of how Bee has set herself apart in a crowded field. Full Frontal has hit a potent combination that makes the show more primed now than ever to become a go-to for fans of political satire. Bee's unflinching attitude and unique perspective in an overwhelmingly male field would already set her apart — but premiering in a particularly bizarre election year makes Full Frontal more prescient than it would've been even just a year ago. Samantha Bee launched her late-night show at the exact right time Full Frontal's timing was perfect. The show premiered right on the heels of the Iowa caucuses, and every week since has only yielded more and more bizarre pieces of election ephemera for the show to tear apart. Additionally, Bee's status as late-night television's lone female voice in a year where Hillary Clinton is running for president certainly works to the host's advantage when discussing the Democratic primaries. When Bee talks about Clinton's attempts to seem more chill and appeal to voters, it's less about Clinton's awkward attempts to relate to people than it is about women having to walk a tightrope when it comes to cultivating their public perception — something Bee undoubtedly knows better than her male colleagues. TBS Full Frontal imagines Hillary Clinton's cheat sheet for being more likable. TBS had never launched a show quite like Full Frontal before, and its other late-night series, Conan, draws consistently low ratings. But Full Frontal's February 8 premiere still brought in 2.2 million viewers across four networks TBS, TNT, truTV, and Adult Swim— an impressive number for a 10:30 pm cable program, and one that holds up when compared with Trevor Noah nabbing 3.5 million viewers across 12(!) networks in his first outing on The Daily Show in September 2015. Full Frontal's internet presence is also impressive; it doesn't quite have the same reach as John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, but the episode clips that TBS posts online each week quickly rack up hundreds of thousands of views. One segment that featured Bee traveling to Texas to confront state Rep. Dan Flynn about his restrictive abortion clinic laws reached almost a million views in the week after it aired. Perhaps most telling is the fact that Bee is rapidly gaining the kind of status that leads many people and news outlets, including Voxto post her clips and just say, "This," as if she's said everything they've been thinking but couldn't quite articulate themselves. There are some basic factors that have contributed to Full Frontal's early success. It's a weekly show, so Bee and her staff can home in on the issues that speak the loudest to them without the pressure of filling airtime that daily programs face. Bee also opted not to bother doing interviews with celebrities and other famous guests in order to make time for longer field pieces, her favorite format from 12 years of reporting on The Daily Show. And, yes, it helps that Bee isn't just another man in a suit, so she can speak from a different (and sorely needed) perspective in a way that makes the boys wanna be her. But even more than that, the reason Full Frontal has made such an indelible mark within weeks of its debut is that Bee is mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. Source: http://ift.tt/21j6gzO