Busy Philipps' "radical and liberating" Busy Tonight will be missed on late-night TV

Vulture

Philipps' love for her audience" is what I’ll miss most about Busy Tonight," says Bethy Squires of the E! late-night talk show's cancelation after six months. "She ended every show with a song and a sincere 'I love you' to camera, but every episode felt candid and chummy. This was the strength of Busy Tonight: the intimacy. Philipps might have been the first talk-show host to let the audience know every time she was on her period. It felt radical and liberating to have the host of a talk show be this transparent about her body and what its whole deal even was. From the beginning, Busy Tonight was uniquely itself: an ode to pop culture and issues usually too femme for the late-night Jameses. Sometimes monologue jokes can feel perfunctory on a standard-issue late-night show. You get the sense that the writers are covering a topic because it’s expected of them, not because they actually feel a need to share a certain story. Trump coverage often falls into this category. The hackiest president results in less-than-stellar material. Busy Philipps never said Trump’s name on her show. There was no need. We know who’s in office — what we don’t know is what was with the destination wedding in Made of Honor." Busy Tonight airs its final episode next Thursday. ALSO: Philipps discusses her decision to open up about her teenage abortion.