{"id":490108,"date":"2026-02-25T18:55:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490108\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T18:55:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T18:55:08","slug":"taylor-tomlinson-talks-netflixs-prodigal-daughter-leaving-late-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/490108\/","title":{"rendered":"Taylor Tomlinson Talks Netflix’s Prodigal Daughter, Leaving Late Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tIt\u2019s not hyperbole\u00a0to call Taylor Tomlinson<\/a> a wunderkind. In her 20s, she became a top-grossing touring stand-up, was tapped to host a late night show (late CBS effort After Midnight<\/a>) and developed her own material more than plenty of her peers will over a lifetime. It helps that she all but committed to the path by 16, initially performing as a Christian comic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 32 now and I\u2019ve been doing this for half of my life,\u201d says Tomlinson. \u201cIt\u2019s crazy to think about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the decade since Tomlinson departed the church circuit \u2014 and the church \u2014 her relationship with religious material has waxed and waned. But it\u2019s on full display in her fourth Netflix<\/a> hour, Prodigal Daughter, which premiered Feb. 24 on the streamer. She even filmed it in a church. But like almost everything about Tomlinson, her takes on the topic have evolved.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I go back and I watch old jokes that I did about Christianity, I think they\u2019re pretty unforgiving compared to this hour,\u201d she says. \u201cThis is coming at it from a place that\u2019s more nuanced and playful and even affectionate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking during a recent episode of\u00a0The Hollywood Reporter\u00a0podcast\u00a0I\u2019m Having an Episode\u00a0(Spotify<\/a>,\u00a0Amazon Music<\/a>,\u00a0Apple<\/a>), Tomlinson dug into her new hour, the tough decision to walk away from the late night gig she loved and the entertainer she\u2019d trade places with for a day. (It\u2019s not Beyonc\u00e9 \u2014\u00a0and for a very shrewd reason.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s a moment early on in Prodigal Daughter where you say your team was nervous about you leaning too far into religious material in this special and tour. Were there legitimate apprehensions? And, if so, what were they?<\/p>\n

\n\tMy team has never given me notes, creatively. So that\u2019s a little bit of an exaggeration. When we were doing the tour name, Save Me, and the artwork for the tour where I\u2019m wearing crosses and stuff, I think they were just like, \u201cWell, OK, can we make it clear to people that it\u2019s not all that? And that we\u2019re not just bashing religion the whole time?\u201d And we\u2019re not, but I understand. Once they saw the hour, they got it. Their job is to think of it from more of a marketing perspective. So they were doing their jobs. If you go back and watch my other specials, all of my jokes about religion are coming from a very wounded place because of the way I grew up. I had a lot of resentment toward a lot of the things that I was told and taught growing up in church. I had to work through a lot of that.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou famously got your start on the church comedy circuit. What little I know of it is that those comics are mostly middle-aged white, married guys. You were 16. What does that set look like?<\/p>\n

\n\tHonestly, it doesn\u2019t look great. (Laughs.) It looks like a lot of jokes about not going to prom and being a loser and feeling ugly and observational stuff about my family. Obviously, I had no life experience. A lot of the jokes I was doing were apologizing for how young I was, because I could feel it making people nervous for me in the audience \u2014 which I think is completely fair. I would be nervous if a 16 year old got onstage and was like, \u201cI\u2019m a comedian.\u201d I think that I was pretty self-aware and maybe that was a strength of mine back then. But, obviously, I was not good. People always ask about starting in churches, because it\u2019s such a weird origin story, and for years I was embarrassed of it. Part of the growth in this new hour is me talking about it in a way that is grateful and appreciative, as opposed to ashamed and embarrassed.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut how many of your peers can say they were performing when they were 16? It\u2019s not like you had a lot of options of where to do it. I would imagine it\u2019s just churches and coffee shops?<\/p>\n

\n\tOne hundred percent. I was doing school fundraisers and stuff. I probably did some corporates, because I was clean. You know what it taught me, though? It taught me that there were a lot of different ways to make money as a stand-up comedian. You don\u2019t have to just be in the clubs \u2014 in theaters, if you\u2019re lucky. You can be a corporate comedian. You can be a church comedian. You can be a cruise ship comedian. Working clean for the first five years probably made me a stronger writer. I used to be really ashamed of my comedy background, and now I think it\u2019s actually sort of weird and cool and probably did me a lot of favors.<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve done churches, corporate gigs, cruises, clubs and arenas; who is the most unforgiving or difficult audience?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt depends on the corporate. You always assume you\u2019re gonna bomb, and then sometimes they\u2019re great. \u201cWow, didn\u2019t see that coming.\u201d You\u2019re really just a dancing clown for hire. You go in knowing that. But if you pull it off, you feel like an amazing comedian. I would say cruise ships are really tough, because everybody\u2019s coming to see you essentially for free. You\u2019re just another activity that\u2019s available on the boat.
You\u2019re a water slide.<\/p>\n

Exactly. And you\u2019re not as good as a water slide. Most people were there with their families or on their anniversary, and I was like 21, talking about dating being weird. I usually did a lot of crowd work on cruise ships. The other comic that would be on it with me, he\u2019d have an hour about this cruise ship. And I was like, \u201cOh man, I am not good at this.\u201d I think those were the hardest for me. Churches, if you\u2019re clean, they\u2019re pretty nice, but you have to be squeaky clean. I\u2019m not talking like, \u201cSend your transcript to The Tonight Show and have them approve it.\u201d I\u2019m talking insanely clean: no innuendo, no light swearing, don\u2019t get too dark or negative. But if you can stay within those parameters, the audience tends to be supportive.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTaylor Tomlinson in Taylor Tomlinson: Prodigal Daughter.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTodd Rosenberg\/Netflix<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019ve heard you say that it was hard to say goodbye to the money when you were transitioning out of church work. At the risk of being gauche, what is a successful church comedian pulling at a show?<\/p>\n

\n\tI never got to a point where I was selling tickets at churches, so I really don\u2019t know. But I can tell you, when I was 21 and I was opening for big church comics, it was like $1,000 a show. That was hard to lose. At a certain point, I told my manager that I couldn\u2019t do churches anymore: \u201cJust don\u2019t even tell me if we get offers.\u201d The last one she told me about was $3,000 for like 30 minutes. When you\u2019re 22, have two TV credits and don\u2019t sell tickets, that\u2019s pretty crazy. That\u2019s a lot of money. But I just couldn\u2019t do it. I\u2019m not a Christian and I\u2019m not what they think they\u2019re paying for.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn talking about personal stuff onstage, in respect to yourself or your friends and family, you\u2019ve also seen your profile rise considerably. Have you had to redraw any lines of where you\u2019re willing to go or what you\u2019re willing to divulge?<\/p>\n

\n\tI don\u2019t know if it was this hour or Have It All, but there were some jokes that I did \u2014 like a whole chunk, eight minutes of jokes \u2014 that were about a relationship I had with somebody in my family. They were working really well, and I was proud of them. But I was dreading telling them every night. I just thought, \u201cYou know what? I don\u2019t need to do these.\u201d I\u2019m writing my own script. It\u2019s up to me what I say up there. So, I just stopped and felt instantly better. When I was younger, you\u2019re so desperate for material that works and you\u2019re so desperate to make it, that if you write a strong joke that works all the time \u2026 You\u2019re like, \u201cWell, I\u2019m going to do it. I don\u2019t have a choice. I have to do it.\u201d As you get older and become more confident as a comedian, you go, \u201cAll right, [I\u2019ll tell] something else. It\u2019s OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI want to talk about After Midnight. You decided to move on and focus on stand-up. Then, CBS announced the show was ending<\/a>. And a few months later, CBS canceled The Late Show With Stephen Colbert<\/a> and basically heralded the end of late night as we know it. It\u2019s a lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tIsn\u2019t that crazy? I couldn\u2019t believe they canceled Colbert. I\u2019m interested in what you think about the state of late night.<\/p>\n

\n\tI understand that it is, financially, a very tough model to work with. But when there\u2019s still such a level of prestige and quality, that rationale alone feels like a cop out. That\u2019s just my opinion.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s interesting how the argument is like, \u201cNobody wants to watch people talk,\u201d People are watching hours of people talking on podcasts on YouTube and now Netflix. I\u2019ve been doing all these podcasts and it is so interesting, too, because you go to some studios and it\u2019s \u2026 it is a TV show. They have a team of eight or nine people, 20 lights and a beautiful setup.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tGetting back to After Midnight, can you talk a little about that decision and those last months?<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was tough. I had decided that I couldn\u2019t come back before the show was renewed. It was sort of a muddy timeline, because the decision had been made to be renewed \u2014 but I didn\u2019t know about that. So it wasn\u2019t as simple as, \u201cThey told us, \u2018You\u2019re being renewed.\u2019 And I went, \u2018No, thank you.\u2019\u201d That\u2019s not what happened. And that show was so much fun to do. Our writers room was amazing. They came up with so many different games and jokes for so many different people every episode. I really couldn\u2019t have asked for a better group of people to go to work with every day, and I was excited that I was in a position to host it three days a week and then still tour. From the beginning, I was always like, \u201cIf I can do both, I will do both.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIt just reached a point where I was touring, I was doing press for the show, I was doing the show and I had some health stuff going on. I just couldn\u2019t do both things anymore. I so badly wanted them to just hire someone else to host it, because I think there were so many comedians who would have been absolutely amazing hosts for that show. And it\u2019s unfortunate that they didn\u2019t go that direction because in the two seasons we did, we got it to a format that CBS seemed to feel good about. It\u2019s a very different show than the one that I signed on for, and I was really happy with and proud of where we all got it. The hardest decision I\u2019ve ever made professionally, by far, was to not come back for a third season. But I couldn\u2019t sustain it.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat surprised me about the cancellation was that the format seemed like a workable evolution for late night. Panel shows are less expensive and so big in other countries, especially the U.K. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tI thought so, too. I\u2019m really sad that it doesn\u2019t exist anymore, because so much hard work went into it. And it was such a great opportunity for comics to get in front of a new audience and get a TV credit and make jokes in a way that didn\u2019t burn their material onstage.\u00a0I\u2019m really grateful that I got to be a part of it for as long as I did. But when Colbert got canceled, it was like, \u201cHoly shit, really? How long would we have been on then if they were going to cancel Colbert?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOK, I\u2019m going to let you go, but if you could trade jobs with anyone in the entertainment industry for a day \u2026 who would it be and why?<\/p>\n

\n\tMaybe Greta Gerwig, because I want to know what she\u2019s doing with Narnia. The Narnia books were so important to us growing up. Maybe I would just walk around and try not to answer any questions. Is it like a Freaky Friday thing \u2014\u00a0where I\u2019m still me but in her body?<\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a good question. No, you are swapping in as yourself. Greta comes to you and she\u2019s like, \u201cListen, I have to have some dental work done. If you could just direct for one day, that would be fantastic.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tI love that you\u2019re like, \u201cBy the way, Greta Gerwig does not want to trade places with you.\u201d (Laughs.) I\u2019m no longer switching places with her. I\u2019m filling in while she gets a root canal.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe\u2019s going to do stand-up later in the day, after the Novocaine has worn off.<\/p>\n

\n\tGot it. OK, then [I pick] Greta Gerwig or like, anyone who can sing. I just want to know what that\u2019s like. But you don\u2019t want to say Beyonc\u00e9. Everybody says Beyonc\u00e9. But then you have to live the rest of your life knowing what that feels like and go back to being you. That might be devastating. That might destroy me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s not hyperbole\u00a0to call Taylor Tomlinson a wunderkind. In her 20s, she became a top-grossing touring stand-up, was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[179997,88,179371,217,10674,224891,179372],"class_list":["post-490108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-after-midnight","tag-entertainment","tag-im-having-an-episode","tag-netflix","tag-stephen-colbert","tag-taylor-tomlinson","tag-thrs-original-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}