Full Frontal with Samantha Bee is an American late-night talk and news satire television program that aired on TBS from 2016 to 2022. The show was hosted by comedian Samantha Bee, a former correspondent on The Daily Show.^[1][2]

In July 2022, the show was cancelled following the Warner Bros. Discovery merger.^[3]

Samantha Bee served as a correspondent on The Daily Show for 12 years, becoming its longest tenured correspondent.^[4][5] She was not approached about succeeding Jon Stewart as the show's host when Stewart announced he would leave the show.^[5] Bee and her husband, Jason Jones, pitched television shows to networks, and their scripted series, called The Detour, was picked up by TBS in February 2015. TBS then decided to extend their relationship with Bee to develop a late-night talk show to pair with Conan.^{[1][2][6][7][8]}

Bee hired Jo Miller and Miles Kahn, formerly producers on The Daily Show, as executive producers for her new show. They set up a blind process for hiring writers that hid the gender and experience level of the applicants, resulting in a writing staff that was approximately half female and 30% non-white.^[6][9] The show hired Winter Miller to help develop a mentorship program to help diversify the writing room.^[9]

Before the show's format was finalized, Bee indicated that she would have segments that focus on news headlines, field pieces, and "grab bag" segments. She filmed a segment about how the Veterans Health Administration was not prepared to treat female soldiers,^[6] and filmed a segment in Jordan. Showrunner Jo Miller indicated that the show would be more interested in injustice than in hypocrisy.^[5] There are no interview guests on the series,^[4] but a number of guest actors have appeared in various segments. For example, the May 9, 2016, episode featured both the singer Michelle Branch and comedian Patton Oswalt.^[10][11]

Full Frontal shared a studio with Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Bee's offices previously housed Stephen Colbert and his staff while renovations were taking place at the Ed Sullivan Theater for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. At the time of its debut, Full Frontal was the only late-night talk show airing in the United States which was hosted by a woman.^[6][9]

On October 31, 2016, Full Frontal aired an interview Bee conducted with President Barack Obama.^[12]

In January 2017, Bee announced that the show would be hosting a gala to counter the White House Correspondents' Dinner.^[13] The event, titled "Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner", was held at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., on April 29, 2017, and aired the same evening at 10:00 p.m. EST on TBS, followed by an encore uncensored broadcast at 11:00 p.m. on Twitter.^[14] The event raised $200,000 for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).^[15]

A portion of the proceeds from the show's merchandise benefits the Karam Foundation,^[16] Distributing Dignity,^[17] Planned Parenthood, the committee to Protect Journalists, and Hispanic Federation.^[18] In July 2017, Bee's "Nasty Woman Shirt" campaign raised over $1 million for Planned Parenthood.^[19] On August 9, 2017, Bee announced that thanks to Turner and Penguin Books, the show was able to send 10,000 books and coloring books to the Kurdish displaced person camp (Khazir) that they have visited.^[20] Full Frontal frequently supports other organizations and causes, including: 2017 Women's March,^[21][22] Girl Scouts of the USA,^[23] New Brunswick Today,^[24] miamirights.com,^[25][26] Life After Hate,^[27] Affordable Care Act (ACA), #MeToo, Time's Up,^[28] RAICES,^[29] and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).^[30]

On March 11, 2020, Bee announced on that night's episode of Full Frontal that future tapings would proceed without an in-studio audience due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.^[31] The COVID-19 affected episodes were subtitled Little Show in the Big Woods and were filmed in the woods, with Bee's husband Jason Jones acting as cameraman.^[32][33] When the show returned to studio taping, it began to originate instead in Norwalk, Connecticut; the Connecticut office of Film, Television and Digital Media was credited at the end of each episode.

In the United States, the first season of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee aired weekly on Mondays at 10:30 p.m. EST on TBS. On November 16, 2016, it was announced that TBS renewed the show for a second season,^[39] as well as moving it to Wednesdays at 10:30 p.m. EST, starting January 11, 2017.^[40]

In Canada, the show aired on The Comedy Network. In Australia, Full Frontal was broadcast on SBS Viceland.^[41] In New Zealand, the show was broadcast on DUKE.^[42] In Germany, the show was broadcast on TNT Comedy with German subtitles.^[43]

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was met with critical acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes, the first season has an approval rating of 100% based on 25 reviews, with an average rating of 8.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee adds a female perspective to late-night TV – and one that's fresh and funny enough to deserve more than just one show a week."^[44] On Metacritic, the first season holds a score of 84 out of 100, based on 16 critics, which constitutes "universal acclaim".^[45]

TheWrap's Diane Gordon praised the show, saying "With Full Frontal, TBS truly has a comedy show that's sure to become part of the cultural conversation and possibly fill the void felt by Jon Stewart‘s departure. There's so much scathing, insightful, intelligent funny packed into Full Frontal and Bee's ability to land a joke is beyond impressive."^[46] Vulture called Full Frontal "a formidable force of political satire. It demands your attention,"^[47] and the blog named Bee's "Trump Conspiracy Theory" segment as its #1 clip on its list of "The 10 Most Important Late-Night TV Moments in 2016."^[48] In March 2017, Wired's cultural critic Virginia Heffernan called Full Frontal "the most mercilessly feminist show (ever) (in history)".^[49]