🎙️ Listen to this episode:
Featured: John Mulaney, Jamie Foxx, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien, Cat Williams, Kevin Hart, Dana Walden
What’s in This Episode
- John Mulaney postpones Victoria stand-up show due to unannounced TV commitment
- Jamie Foxx releases new special ‘Take Care of Yourself’ on Hulu and Disney Plus
- Jamie Foxx discusses impersonations and why he won’t do podcasts
- Jimmy Kimmel renewal uncertainty amid late-night business challenges
- Conan O’Brien discusses changing landscape of late-night TV and comedy writing
Questions Answered in This Episode
Why did John Mulaney postpone his Victoria concert?
Mulaney’s November 12th show was moved to March 5th due to a soon-to-be-announced TV commitment, which Johnny Mac speculates could be hosting SNL or another secret project.
What is Jamie Foxx’s new special about?
Jamie Foxx’s new special ‘Take Care of Yourself’ on Hulu and Disney Plus builds on his triumph over his health scare, with jokes about Kim Kardashian, the president, and includes impersonations with fewer tears and more comedy.
Why won’t Jamie Foxx do podcast interviews?
Fox said he doesn’t want to do podcasts because it seems like you get in trouble if you don’t say something crazy to move the algorithm, and he prefers not to do whatever it takes to get engagement.
Is Jimmy Kimmel getting renewed for next season?
Disney’s Dana Walden declined to confirm Kimmel’s renewal, citing challenges in the late-night business and noting that while his ratings are up, they’re up within a smaller broadcast audience that’s not as lucrative for premium programming.
What did Conan O’Brien say about the future of late-night TV?
Conan said the old model of writer rooms running August through May with handsomely paid writers won’t return, but creative people will find new ways to make content; he’s a 53% optimist about the industry’s evolution.
Why has Conan’s podcast format changed?
As Conan’s podcast became more successful, appearances began arriving with requirements and timing tied to project releases, causing the show to become more calcified and less pure than when he started.
Full Transcript
This transcript was automatically generated and may contain spelling and/or transcription errors.
Caloroga Shark Media. Hello, I’m Johnny Mac with your Daily Comedy News. This one’s interesting. John Mulaney’s stand-up show in Victoria has been postponed until next year. John was scheduled to perform November 12th at the Save-On Foods Memorial Center as part of his Mr.
Whatever tour. It was moved to March 5th, but here’s why it’s interesting. Quote, due to a soon-to-be-announced TV commitment.. I wonder if that is Mulaney hosting Saturday Night Live. I’m just guessing there.
Or is there a secret John Mulaney project to be announced? Interesting. My former co-worker Jamie Foxx has a new special out today on Hulu. I hate to tell Jamie what I think of the Hulu specials in case you’re new to this program. I tend to find that you get your Hulu special when you’re slightly past peak, but don’t tell Jamie I said that.
Take Care of Yourself will release on Hulu and Disney Plus today. Not that the Hulu publicist would send you any information about it, but I have learned that Take Care of Yourself builds on Jamie Foxx’s triumph over his health scare. Much like his previous special, but this one has fewer tears and more cracks. Jamie also has some jokes about Kim Kardashian and the president of the United States, as well as the people who voted for the president of the United States. The Hollywood Reporter caught up with Jamie and they asked him, hey, you got a lot of people with your impersonations early on, Denzel, LeBron, Chappelle.
Who’s going to be the first one to call you and say, why’d you do me like that? Fox said, LeBron. I just was on the phone with LeBron talking to him about going to Philly, which I’m glad he got a chance. The look was off in L.A. Because L.A.
Loves Kobe so much. Philly’s perfect for him, though. He even looks Philly with that beard. L.A. ‘s a little more light-skinned. L.A.
Was too brave for LeBron. I’ll never forget Shaq was like, man, why they was trying to get me out of here? Why they want me to leave? I said, because L.A. Likes pretty people.
They asked Jamie if he would go on Club Shea Shea with Shannon Sharp. Fox said, I don’t want to do no podcast. THR was curious. Why not? Fox says, it seems like you get in trouble.
It seems like if you don’t say something crazy, you can’t move the algorithm. Even with the Cat Williams interview, I love Cat, but there weren’t any follow-up questions. I don’t want to do the podcast because I don’t have to do whatever it is to get the algorithm popping. You got to talk crazy stuff. They were curious.
With Cat, did you call him out for saying your Netflix special wasn’t funny? Jamie said, no, Cat is cool. We’re comics. And if Cat says my special wasn’t funny, that’s better for me because now I got something to talk about. For Comedian, we look for small things of adversity.
When everything is too perfect, you got nothing to talk about. But Cat and I are working together. I got something crazy coming for him. That’s interesting. I’ve always championed comedians, but I see Cat and go, why doesn’t Cat have his own movie, his own vehicle?
It’s time. So it’s right around the corner. Jamie said after the roast of Kevin Hart, quote, I had to cut everything. THR was curious why, Fox said, because people became too sensitive. The roast was whatever you thought it was, but when they take the joke so personally, and it is personal, I didn’t like the George Floyd stuff at all, but when you see people respond to certain things, you go, okay, maybe we need to tuck that away because I want to keep it refreshed.
I don’t want to bend anybody in a pretzel. Take care of yourself on Hulu and Disney Plus today. The never-ending saga of will Jimmy Kimmel stick around took an interesting turn. Disney’s president chief creative officer Dana Walden was asked by Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw if Jimmy Kimmel would still be hosting his ABC late night show next year. Walden said, well, I’m certainly not going to make that announcement with you here today.
Shaw followed up. Why isn’t renewing Kimmel a no brainer given that his ratings are up, etc. Walden said, that’s a good question. And the truth is, it’s a very challenging day part late night. That’s not to say Jimmy isn’t doing a phenomenal job and his ratings are up.
But they’re up relative to a smaller audience that’s watching late night on broadcast television. Obviously, there’s a YouTube channel. Millions of people are watching on-demand parts of the show. That’s not a lucrative opportunity for a very premium talk show. Uh-oh.
I’ve always thought Kimmel’s the face of the network. You’d bring him back. That comment there is a little worrying. Could just be negotiating in public. Maybe Kimmel comes back for less.
A lot of times, In my experience in the entertainment industry, you’ll do a deal where you renew for less, but you also work less. I could see one of those happening. Walden said, we’re trying to make sense of the business while also honoring a deep partnership. I love Jimmy. We have a great friendship.
He’s close to a number of people at Disney. And again, we’re trying to work through it and make sense of both what does Jimmy want What’s the right thing to do and what’s the right thing for our business? Now, I noticed last week when Jimmy Kimmel did his Brooklyn shows, usually that is a big bleep and deal. No buzz this year. Like, you know, other than if you really deep dove on LateNighter.com, I didn’t see any mainstream press about it at all.
Conan O’Brien was at Bloomberg’s Screen Time conference. He says he doesn’t know what the future of comedy and comedy writing for TV will look like, only that it’ll be different than when he started. Conan said the days of writer rooms running from August through May and everybody being paid very handsomely in their 20s and ordering food on a network tab are not coming back. It’ll change, but creative people always find a way to be creative and congregate and make great things. Bloomberg reporter Ashley Carman asked Conan if he buys the network line that late night is a bad business, you know, specific to the Colbert and the Byron Allen part of all things.
Conan said, over my 17 years at NBC, I started to see it really changing. They were asking us to be much more cost conscious with good reason. People were watching HBO and Cinemax. Then more networks started doing late night shows. It’s a little like Detroit and automobiles.
Things changed. Conan says he’s a 53% optimist that writers and comedians will find new ways to make funny things and get them in front of viewers. It’s going to keep changing and it’s not going to be what I knew. I’m glad I got to have that, but it will change and morph and really talented people will profit from it. Conan talked about podcasting and how he’s become a victim of his own success.
He explains, so when you start out doing this thing, you’re just going to talk to the artist. It’s very pure. But as the show becomes more successful, appearances begin arriving with requirements attached. An episode needs to drop at a certain time to coincide with a project. Conan said you start to see it calcified because that’s what happens to things.
As for talk shows, I was very fortunate to have that format when the format was the thing to have. And I did it for a long time and I loved it. But now at this stage in my life and my career, having these kinds of conversations with people and not obsessing about what I’m wearing, not having makeup on, it just feels like this is an appropriate place to be. Will Conan keep the podcast past his current contract, which runs through 2027? He said, I haven’t even thought about it yet.
We’ll get to that when the time comes, but I assure you, all will be well. All this reminds me to plug the new podcast, Is Late Night Dead? If you haven’t checked out episode one, that’s in its own feed. The feed is called Is Late Night Dead? I talked about 1230 Letterman last week.
This week on Sunday, I will talk about 1130 Letterman. Is Late Night Dead, wherever you found this show. In the first week of new episodes since late July, Late Night with Seth Meyers. Make 1230 great again. Let’s get somebody else in there.
Average 968,000 total viewers for the week of September 20th, up 44% from the previous week, which was week seven of reruns. Adults 18 to 49, 122,000 people, which are podcast numbers. Yikes. Over on CBS, the Byron Allen 1230 show, Funny You Should Ask, had 451,000 total viewers, up about 9%. So that’s like half of what Seth Meyers is doing without even trying.
At 1135, Jimmy Kimmel Live. Up top, 2.562 million total viewers, 291,000 adults, 18 to 49. Fallon, 1.4 million total viewers, and 186,000 adults, 18 to 49. Yikes, yikes, yikes. Thanks for Late Nighter for pulling those numbers.
Pete Davidson has a cover story in Variety. Pete discussed the peanut gallery, as he calls them. Those are the people who have spent years scolding him for telling the occasional 9-11 joke. Pete said, for a while, it bothered me when I would get a, why is he talking about 9-11 and his dad and all this stuff from weird people on the internet? Like it was all I talked about.
I’ve made maybe five jokes about it. My specials over a span of 16 years.
And then every 9-11, I try and do a benefit to help out.
So I have my blinders on. I do whatever I feel is necessary to do. Pete talked about the president of the United States saying nothing that guy says is surprising anymore. It’s sad that it’s to the point where it’s so ridiculous. You’re like, yeah, whatever.
He’s the drunk uncle, but he’s the keys to the nukes. That’s the problem. If he didn’t have those keys, he’d be like, oh, that’s just the silly drunk uncle. He’s old. Pete discussed how it took him a while to settle into SNL.
He said, I wanted to leave after my first year and asked Lorne Michaels to leave every year. I was like, I don’t work in this.
And then I just do my standup on update and burn it.
And then I can’t do it on the road. And I just want to do standup. And Lorne would always be like, you’ll figure it out after four years. And he was right. Pete seemed frustrated that people like to talk about his dating activities.
He said, what do I have to do? Look, I get it. I’ve dated a lot of people, but so has everyone else. Everyone is having sex with everyone in this business. Everyone.
And for some reason, it’s zeroed in on me and I can’t feel sorry for myself because I put myself in those situations. But everyone else is doing it. I was in my 20s. Am I supposed to not mess around and do drugs and have fun and be in Hollywood like everyone else? Sorry, everyone.
Charlie Sheen, back doing a sitcom. He’ll team up with his father, Martin Sheen. They will star as father and son. Good casting. It is a comedy series called Happy Jack.
It’ll be on AMC. The multicam comedy starts production on a six-episode first season in L.A. For launch on AMC. It will be shot in front of a live studio audience. The description, Charlie Sheen plays Jack, a bit of a lifelong never-do-well.
He’s got two great daughters, though his dad, played by Martin Sheen, deserves more credit for how they turned out. Kate runs Jack’s company and keeps him on the rails, while Sam.. Is a wild child who’s more like her dad. When Sam comes home to introduce everyone to her new boyfriend, Jack is shocked to learn that Paul, a former investment banker turned van life guru, is the same age as he is. Shocked at first, Jack realizes he’s got a choice to make.
Will he keep looking out for number one or embrace this last chance to be a real part of his daughter’s lives? Were you bored listening to me listen to that sentence? I don’t want to watch that. And I love I love Martin Sheen and I like Charlie Sheen, but I’m bored. No, don’t make that.
And we’ll leave on a sad note today. Reggie McFadden, actor and stand-up comic who got his big break on Deaf Comedy Jam, worked for a season on In Living Color, has died. Reggie McFadden was 57. His sister told The Hollywood Reporter that the U.S. State Department notified the family that Reggie had died in Tanzania, where he’d been living for the past 18 years.
In 1991, Reggie made it onto HBO’s Deaf Comedy Jam, and after moving to L.A. He landed small roles on Martin, Hanging with Mr. Cooper, Moesha, and Coach, he’s perhaps best remembered for In Living Color. He appeared in 23 episodes of the fifth and final season in sketches such as Wheel of Dozens, All Up in the Family, and the Dirty Dozens Tournament of Champions. Reggie McFadden was 57.
That’s your comedy news for today.