John Mulaney indicates Netflix was surprised by his early guest list

John Mulaney did such a good job, Netflix clearly thought, on his Everybody's in LA series that the streamer thought it safe to give the comedian his own ongoing live talk show. How good is it? (Well, to be fair, we do have a review of the series here, but you are also free to decide on your own.) Reviews are mixed.

The issue for Netflix, at least according to Variety and Mulaney himself, is that the show's early guests were not all A-listers. There was quality among the group, of course, but no Brad Pitt, George Clooney, or Taylor Swift to speak of. But that is part of the Mulaney niche as well.

He might not always seek out the most popular among us, but he does want to have people who might be interesting to speak with and to the viewer. That should ultimately be the point anyway, right? We want to be entertained, and if Fred Armisen appears (which he did on an early episode of the new Mulaney series) then he is likely to be entertaining, even if he is not bringing eyeballs to the series.

Netflix might be confused about what series they purchased with new John Mulaney talk show

Heck, Mulaney even promoted the series by saying, "We will never be relevant." The comment was tongue-in-cheek, of course, but he had a point. He wasn't going to sell his artistic soul simply for high views, but rather to be entertaining. Netflix, though, wants to have high views as well. That is the streamer's right, of course, but the company is in the business of making money.

More people interested in watching the show should translate to more subscribers and more money for Netflix. That is how business works.

Still, speaking in his writers' room while a Variety reporter was there to witness the conversation, Mulaney said an unnamed Netflix executive, whom he had just spoken with on the phone, said, "This is not the show we sold."

Mulaney went on to say about the phone conversation, "It was great to see someone kind of apoplectic—like, 'Oh honey, do you know what you bought?'...I’m like, Yeah, you think you’ll feel better when I explain ‘telescope murder’? If I walk you through that it’s a Body Double parody, you’ll feel better about the spend?“

While Netflix might hope that Mulaney's guest list gets more A-listers (some who have appeared on the series so far include Armisen, Joan Baez, and Michael Keaton), viewers just hope to have fun watching the show. Mulaney's staging of the show is a bit inconsistent so far, but he is just starting off. If too many tune out early, though, Netflix might just cancel the series due to low views.

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