"We will never be relevant," quipped John Mulaney about his upcoming live talk show at Netflix's 2025 preview event on Wednesday morning.
And yet, the comedian did quote Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump's pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, from the confirmation hearing earlier that morning. In front of gathered journalists at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, Mulaney introduced his upcoming series "Everybody's Live With John Mulaney," which is inspired by his limited series "Everybody's in LA" from 2024.
Mulaney explained, "Netflix and I discussed this summer not being done with the show, and I was thrilled to do that. 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.
"And I just heard Robert F Kennedy Jr. say during the confirmation hearing, 'I have a nice life and a happy family. I don't need this,'" said the comedian, reading from his notes.
Although Mulaney is paraphrasing, he did indeed grasp the gist of the opening speech, in which Kennedy Jr. said about his dedication to the nation's health care: "I know how to fix it, and there's nobody who will fix it the way that I do because I'm not scared of vested interest. I don't care. I'm not here because I want a position or a job. I have a very good life and a happy family. This is something I don't need.'"
After this uncharacteristic foray into newsiness, Mulaney doubled down on his self-deprecating style of underselling his series "Everybody's Live," which will air live weekly starting March 12 for 12 weeks.
"We will be live globally with no delay," he continued. "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.
"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 P***y. That's just a brief sampling of guests. We don't know if we can lock in Mannequin P***y, but we are in talks with them.
"This is a really fun experiment. Not since Harry and Meghan has Netflix given more money to someone without a specific plan. . . . 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. 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.
"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."
As with his Los Angeles series, Mulaney will be joined by the delivery cart robot Saymo and actor Richard Kind, who played a goofier version of himself in the role of talk show announcer and sidekick.
Besides "Everybody's Live," the streamer also announced its upcoming slate of movies, TV shows and other programming, using the tagline, "You're not ready for what's next," which some could see as an accurate statement about 2025 overall. A video for the slate features a Netflix hero who takes on the various guises of roels from the streamer's globally popular shows returning this year including "Stranger Things," "Wednesday," "Squid Game" and "Alice in Borderland."
The Netflix event also afforded the network to acknowledge the recent fires still ravaging parts of Los Angeles, that have taken 29 lives and left many without homes and/or jobs.
Mulaney referred to the fires elliptically when discussing last year's Los Angeles series. "We had a blast," he said. "We had many comedians who were in town for the festival. We had lots of guests. We had a hypnotist. We had an expert on coyotes in Los Angeles. We had a palm tree expert. We had an earthquake expert. We covered most all natural disasters that take place in California . . . except for one. We just weren't ready."
Tina Fey, who had introduced her upcoming series adaptation of Alan Alda's 1981 movie "The Four Seasons," said, "It’s nice to be here with you all in person. I love Los Angeles and I wanna thank Netflix for this chance to come in from New York and check on my friends."
And even before the presentation began, Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria commented to the press, "I feel so lucky that I called Southern California home since I was 9 years old. I love L.A. I love West Coast rap — true story. I still think palm trees are breathtaking and I defend L.A. whenever people talk s**t about it. So that's why it's also been so heartbreaking to see what's happened to this community over the last couple of weeks, and sorry to see that some of you and your colleagues have lost homes and have your lives turned upside down. Between COVID, the strikes, the fires, this town has been through a lot in the past few years, but just like we've gotten through everything else together, we will rebuild the [Pacific] Palisades, Malibu, Altadena and all the areas that have been devastated."
Before leaving, the press was presented with a bag containing a t-shirt with "City of Angels" printed on it and a note that stated proceeds from the item would go to the American Red Cross to "support their critical work in responding to the LA wildfires."
