Are late-night TV feuds back for 2025? It certainly seems like it could be as former late-night TV host Samantha Bee dealt some harsh words toward Saturday Night Live boss Lorne Michaels.
It all started with the release of an excerpt from Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live, an upcoming biography written by Susan Morrison. In an effort to claim SNL is apolitical, Michaels called out Bee by name.
“It’s the hardest thing for me to explain to this generation that the show is nonpartisan,” Michaels said. (viaThe Daily Beast) “We have our biases, we have our people we like better than others, but you can’t be Samantha Bee.”
According to Morrison, the SNL creator meant someone "meant one-sided and strident." Bee would certainly fit that definition based on the views she expressed as a Daily Show correspondent and host of the now-defunct TBS late-night show Full Frontal.
Bee responded on The Daily Best Podcast by taking a swing back at Michaels. “I mean, literally — imagine calling anyone strident when you have built a career out of elevating the loudest guy in the room,”
“I get referenced in the book as being someone that [Michaels] does not want to emulate in any way,” Bee continued. “I concede the point. He’s right. I am one-sided. And I am strident, and proudly so.”
Bee went on to say nothing but positive things about Saturday Night Live as a show. While she doesn't keep up with the show now in its 50th season, the cultural and comedic impact of the show isn't lost on her.
"It’s just all in my consciousness and I love it," Bee commented. "I love the performers, I love the writers, I love the writing. I don’t watch it every week but I certainly have admired it through the years.”
Full Frontal with Samantha Bee ran from 2016 to 2022. Bee made no effort to be nonpartisan, routinely mocking and hammering conservative politicians and movements. Among the most memorable moments on the show was Bee's use of a vulgar term directed at Ivanka Trump that created a controversy.
Bee currently hosts the podcast Choice Words with Samantha Bee. It has less of a political slant to its content, but Bee hasn't changed her views or personality despite the new medium.