Live from Los Angeles, it’s John Mulaney.
The comedian’s new talk show debuts on Netflix on Wednesday night, marking the streaming giant’s latest push into live broadcasting. “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney” will run weekly for 12 episodes with its first featuring musician Joan Baez, actors Michael Keaton and Fred Armisen, and San Francisco Chronicle personal finance columnist Jessica Roy.
Live programming has been a hit for Netflix, but Mulaney enters the late-night scene at a time when the biggest shows have found serious competition for attention from a rising crop of internet-native voices who are increasingly making their way to TV screens. Celebrities remain a mainstay on talk shows but are just as likely to generate buzzy moments when appearing on popular podcasts like Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” or “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
The comedian appears unfazed by the challenges of the late-night format.
“We will never be relevant,” Mulaney joked to reporters at Next on Netflix in January. “We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore.”
The data for most of Netflix’s live programming has been pretty good. The platform drew in huge audiences for its first NFL games on Christmas Day (which featured a halftime show headlined by Beyoncé), as well as its hyped boxing match between Mike Tyson and Jake Paul. Last year, Mulaney’s six-part live comedy special, “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.,” also proved to be a hit for Netflix, helping pave the way for the new, nonlimited series.
With its new talk show, there’s few live TV formats Netflix hasn’t tried.
“It was inevitable that Netflix was going to do this,” said Robert Thompson, a professor of television and pop culture at Syracuse University. “I think just like anything else, streaming companies are saying: ‘We’ve done dramas very successfully. We’ve done comedies. What about this other major genre, which is late-night comedy?”
Others have already seen success. HBO’s “Real Time With Bill Maher,” for example, is now in its 23rd season.
For Netflix to stand out, it will likely need to experiment with the format, Thompson said.
The show has to “figure out, how do we do this differently when people aren’t simply watching it at 11:30 at night?” Thompson said. If Mulaney is successful, he can help transform the old-fashioned familiar genre.
Having Mulaney’s show “air” only once a week is part of that effort.
Like with “Everybody’s in L.A.,” Mulaney plans to feature a mix of celebrities, comedians, experts and academics with his new show. Richard Kind will return as Mulaney’s sidekick and emcee. Saymo, the delivery bot from “Everybody’s in L.A.,” will also be featured. Mulaney said he will continue to take calls from viewers.
The streaming service has a long-standing relationship with the Emmy–winning Mulaney, who has had five of his stand-up specials on the service. In recent years, the former “Saturday Night Live” writer has become even more of a household name, elevating his comedy with candor about getting sober; falling in love with his now-wife, Olivia Munn; and fatherhood. Mulaney serves as the new talk show’s host, co-showrunner and executive producer through his company, Multiple Camera Productions.
Late-night shows have been a mainstay for the broadcast networks going back many decades but suffered declines in viewership and ad revenue in recent years. Some shows have downsized.
And while the internet has eaten into the relevance of late-night shows, it has also offered them a new way to reach people. Some of the genre’s success now comes when it repurposes standout moments from episodes for the internet.
“Late-night television shows have managed to survive because you can slice and dice, chop them up and put them onto streaming,” Thompson said.
“We’ve had over 60 years of real success with this type of programming,” Thompson added. “Streaming is going to have to adjust how we watch it, but it seems too rich of a mine to not to continue to try and get stuff out of.”
