John Mulaney’s Netflix Talk Show Sets Release Date: ‘Not Since Harry and Meghan Has Netflix Given More Money to Someone Without a Specific Plan’
John Mulaney’s upcoming Netflix talk show has been given a title and a premiere date: “Everybody’s Live With John Mulaney” is set to launch on March 12, the streamer revealed during its “Next on Netflix” showcase for reporters. The live show will initially air weekly for 12 weeks.
“We will be live globally with no delay,” Mulaney told press. “We will never be relevant. We will never be your source for news. We will always be reckless. Netflix will always provide us with data that we will ignore.”
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“Everybody’s Live” is an outgrowth of “John Mulaney Presents: Everybody’s In LA,” which aired over six days last May during the Netflix Is a Joke Festival. The series featured Richard Kind as Mulaney’s sidekick and announcer; Kind will be back for “Everybody’s Live,” as will robot delivery cart Saymo.
Quipped Mulaney: “We’re having trouble finding Saymo, so we just keep ordering Shastas and ginger ales and hoping that he’ll roll up… Richard and I met through a real-life ‘Baby Reindeer’ scenario. He kept showing up where I worked and I decided to incorporate him into my life.”
“Everybody’s In LA” earned raves from critics, particularly those in the Los Angeles area. That’s because the show leaned into the L.A. quirks, brining on experts on coyotes, palm trees and earthquakes. “We covered most all natural disasters that take place in California except for one,” Mulaney said — referencing the irony that the show didn’t address wildfires, an issue that has impacted the region greatly in the past month.
The new talk show won’t just focus on Los Angeles, but it’s expected to keep the idea of mixing celebrities and comedians with experts in various fields of interest.
“This will be the one place where you could see Arnold Schwarzenegger sitting next to Nikki Glaser sitting next to a family therapist with music by Mannequin Pussy,” Mulaney said. “That’s just a brief sampling of guests. We don’t know if we can lock in Mannequin Pussy, but we are in talks with them.”
“Everybody’s Live” is part of an expansion into more live programming for Netflix, which has included the “Roast of Tom Brady,” comedy specials from the likes of Chris Rock and Joe Rogan, “WWE Raw,” the Jake Paul/Mike Tyson fight and a Christmas day set of NFL games.
“I think that this show will be something that people will want to tune into live. We will have a host in a suit taking calls from viewers,” Mulaney said. “It’s Netflix’s commitment to embracing the 20th century. There is absolutely nothing new about what I’m doing but, by taking a lot of elements other people have already done and doing them out of order, it feels new and that’s what’s important.”
Talk has been a challenging space for Netflix, with past attempts from hosts like Hasan Minhaj failing to gain traction, but execs there are bullish about turning “Everybody’s Live” into a weekly must-see showcase.
“Netflix and I discussed this summer not being done with the show and I was thrilled to do that,” Mulaney said. “It was a total blast and it was one of those shows that neither Netflix nor I really needed to do. I never wanted to host a talk show and they were getting out of the talk show game. So it was the perfect moment to do this… If we can be one-tenth as popular on Netflix as anything from South Korea, I will have the most successful talk show in world history.”
Mulaney will serve as host, co-showrunner and exec producer through his Multiple Camera Prods. shingle.
“This is a really fun experiment,” he added. “Not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan.”
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