{ "id": "ep9sb8c4jf", "slug": "norm-macdonald-has-a-show", "title": "Norm Macdonald Has a Show", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series", "label": "Series and fictional screen worlds", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted", "label": "Unscripted, reality, and web-native series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted" }, { "id": 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"Unscripted, reality, and web-native series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted.celebrity-lifestyle-court-reality", "label": "Celebrity, family, lifestyle, and court reality series", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted.celebrity-lifestyle-court-reality" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Norm Macdonald Has a Show (Norm Macdonald Has a Show) is a 2018 Netflix talk show, a ten-episode adaptation of the Norm Macdonald Live podcast, hosted by Norm Macdonald and Adam Eget with one celebrity guest per episode, premiering September 14, 2018.", "snippet": "Norm Macdonald Has a Show (Norm Macdonald Has a Show) is a 2018 Netflix talk show, a ten-episode adaptation of the Norm Macdonald Live podcast, hosted by Norm Macdonald and Adam Eget with one celebrity guest per episode, premiering September 14, 2018.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.series.series_unscripted.celebrity-lifestyle-court-reality.lifestyle-dating-and-docusoaps.celebrity-and-family-docusoaps.yr-1997-2018", "markdown": "# Norm Macdonald Has a Show\n\n**Norm Macdonald Has a Show** is an American talk show hosted by comedian [Norm Macdonald](https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald) and his sidekick [Adam Eget](https://www.edgepedia.org/adam-eget), in which each half-hour episode centers on an unscripted conversation with one celebrity guest. Netflix ordered ten episodes in March 2018, and the series premiered on the streaming service on September 14, 2018.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) It adapted Macdonald's video podcast *Norm Macdonald Live*, which he had co-hosted with Eget on and off since 2013.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Network and premiere | Netflix; released September 14, 2018[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) |\n| Format | Half-hour talk show, ten episodes, one celebrity guest per episode[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) |\n| Hosts | Norm Macdonald and sidekick Adam Eget[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) |\n| Origin | Adaptation of the video podcast *Norm Macdonald Live* (running since 2013)[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) |\n| Production companies | Anchor Spud Productions and Pygmy Wolf Productions in association with Lionsgate Television[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) |\n| Executive producers | Norm Macdonald, Lori Jo Hoekstra, K.P. Anderson, and Daniel Kellison; David Letterman served as a creative partner[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) |\n| Rating | TV-MA[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\n#### Season 1\n\nThe set is a sparse room at Sunset Bronson Studios: a desk, two chairs, a neon \"Norm\" sign, and a Netflix fridge. Macdonald opens the series with his old friend [David Spade](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-spade), and the episode is a shambles in a way that becomes the show's signature. Bits die on arrival, Eget is heckled as the show's designated punching bag, and Spade, sincerely unnerved, asks, \"Is this going to go down as a test show?\" Letterman, credited as \"special counsel\" and seated off to the side, deadpans that he feels like he is \"on a show in another country.\" When another bit collapses, Letterman announces \"I'm not coming back, Norm,\" then actually gets up and walks off the set mid-taping, returning only grudgingly. It is the worst-reviewed episode of the season and, in its total refusal to work, a fair statement of what the show is.\n\nFrom there the season settles into a rhythm of one guest per episode, each conversation drifting between dumb bits and startlingly direct questions. Macdonald asks [Drew Barrymore](https://www.edgepedia.org/drew-barrymore), \"Do you miss cocaine?\" He asks [Judge Judy](https://www.edgepedia.org/judge-judy) about her mortality. He sidesteps topical subjects like #MeToo and [Roseanne Barr](https://www.edgepedia.org/roseanne-barr)'s downfall so the episodes will age well. Each show closes with Macdonald, Eget, and the guest singing along to a recorded goodbye song off blue index cards, a nod to old-school sign-offs like *The Carol Burnett Show*'s; Letterman walks out in mock disgust before the song starts.\n\n**The Jane Fonda episode is the one people remember, and it works because Macdonald stops performing and simply talks to her.** With no audience and no commercial breaks, the two settle into a real conversation, and Macdonald asks her, plainly, \"Do you consider your mortality more than you used to?\" Fonda answers him honestly and at length, and when Macdonald asks who she considers sexy these days, she replies, without missing a beat, \"Blake Shelton.\" Critics who saw the season early singled this episode out as the best by a wide margin, a half hour that shows what the format was actually for: two people, one weird question at a time, until something true slips out.\n\nThe other standout is the [M. Night Shyamalan](https://www.edgepedia.org/m-night-shyamalan) episode, which The Ringer judged possibly the single best of the season because it is, unusually, an actual conversation: Macdonald interrupts less, listens more, and lets the director of *The Sixth Sense* talk about his craft and his reputation. Elsewhere the season hits its floor with [Lorne Michaels](https://www.edgepedia.org/lorne-michaels), Macdonald's old boss from *Saturday Night Live*, in an episode critics ranked second-worst, thick with awkward history between the two men — though it was NBC executive [Don Ohlmeyer](https://www.edgepedia.org/don-ohlmeyer), not Michaels, who fired Macdonald in 1998, reportedly over his relentless O.J. Simpson jokes on *SNL*. The season rounds out with Chevy Chase, Michael Keaton, country songwriter Billy Joe Shaver, and the Letterman episode itself, in which Macdonald jokes that he has \"no idea what to do with $2 million an episode\" and nobody, including Letterman, can tell whether he is kidding. The final image of the series is the same as every episode's: the cast singing the goodbye song while the guest watches in wonder, or in Letterman's case, from the door.\n\n### Characters\n\n- **Norm Macdonald** (himself): host, co-showrunner, and agent of chaos. A former *SNL* [Weekend Update](https://www.edgepedia.org/weekend-update) anchor with a deadpan, shaggy-dog delivery, he treats the talk show format as a thing to be gently dismantled, asking blunt questions and letting silences do the work.\n- **Adam Eget** (himself): Macdonald's sidekick from *Norm Macdonald Live*, whose job is largely to be mocked, doubted, and accused of invented misdeeds while fetching things.\n- **David Letterman** (himself): credited as \"special counsel,\" though the press release jokes he is the location scout. He sits in on the proceedings, delivers weary commentary from the side of the set, periodically threatens to leave, and once follows through.\n\nThe guests across the season are Drew Barrymore, David Spade, Judge Judy Sheindlin, David Letterman, Jane Fonda, Chevy Chase, M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Keaton, Billy Joe Shaver, and Lorne Michaels.\n\n### Interpretations and controversies\n\nThe show premiered in the middle of a press-tour controversy. Days before release, Macdonald told [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) that he was \"happy the #MeToo movement had slowed down a bit,\" defended his friends [Louis C.K.](https://www.edgepedia.org/louis-c-k) and Roseanne Barr, and made a joke about [Down syndrome](https://www.edgepedia.org/down-syndrome) while attempting to walk things back. The Hollywood Reporter's review argued he was \"coming out of the chute in the wrong direction.\" The deeper debate among critics was whether the show's stiltedness was a deliberate anti-talk-show statement or just a show that did not work; the split between a Metascore of 43 and a user score of 8.7 captures the disagreement exactly.\n\n### Sequels, spin-offs, and adaptations\n\nThe series grew out of *Norm Macdonald Live*, Macdonald's 2013 podcast with Adam Eget, which served as proof of concept. As part of the Netflix deal, the old podcast episodes were taken down from YouTube and the channel was shut down before the new show premiered. No second season was made; the 2022 Netflix special *Nothing Special* was instead assembled from a run-through Macdonald self-taped shortly before his death in September 2021.\n\n## Origin and production\n\nMacdonald announced the deal in a Reddit AMA in January 2018, writing that he had made *Norm Macdonald Live* \"in order to see if I could host a talk show\" and that \"all the podcasts were rehearsals.\" Netflix formalized the ten-episode order in March 2018.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/) Netflix described the series as \"great and unexpected conversation, jokes and a behind-the-scenes look at Norm's world.\"[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/)\n\nThe show was produced under Macdonald's banner Anchor Spud Productions, along with Pygmy Wolf Productions, in association with Lionsgate Television. Macdonald co-showran and executive produced the series with Lori Jo Hoekstra, with K.P. Anderson and Daniel Kellison also executive producing. [David Letterman](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-letterman), who had his own Netflix talk show at the time, was a creative partner.[1](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/)\n\n## Style and approach\n\n**Loose production.** Macdonald told *The New Yorker* that he was \"trying to make it real intimate,\" and that he liked to throw camera-savvy guests off their talk-show routines by keeping production loose. He never told anyone when the show had started; at one point someone drove a forklift through a shot. The guest David Spade wondered aloud whether he had been summoned for a test episode, which Macdonald called \"the spirit of the show.\"[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/real-talk-with-norm-macdonald) A later *New Yorker* television review described the result as a host who had \"taken a talk show apart to play with various pieces strictly for fun and for exercise,\" joined by Eget, who worked at the Comedy Store.[4](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/norm-macdonalds-press-tour-was-a-debacle-his-new-show-is-a-loose-hang)\n\n**No topical comedy.** Macdonald barred political jokes on the show. He argued that comedy living on Netflix could not be dated, and said in a 2018 interview that he insisted the show would feature \"nothing topical.\"[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/real-talk-with-norm-macdonald) • [5](https://time.com/5393657/norm-macdonald-me-too/) The same press tour drew criticism when Macdonald defended Louis C.K. and Roseanne Barr, both of whom had been driven out of work by scandal; he had put the two in touch so they could talk.[3](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/real-talk-with-norm-macdonald) • [5](https://time.com/5393657/norm-macdonald-me-too/)\n\n## Guests\n\nEach episode featured one celebrity guest. The lineup included Drew Barrymore, David Letterman, Lorne Michaels, Jane Fonda, Judge Judy (Judith Sheindlin), David Spade, Chevy Chase, M. Night Shyamalan, Michael Keaton, and [Billy Joe Shaver](https://www.edgepedia.org/billy-joe-shaver).[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/norm-macdonald-has-a-show) Letterman, the show's creative partner, appeared as a guest; the final listed episode of the season featured Lorne Michaels looking back at the history of *Saturday Night Live*, the \"cold open\" concept, and the Sinéad O'Connor incident.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/norm-macdonald-has-a-show) • [7](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/35258/norm-macdonald-has-a-show)\n\n## Reception\n\nProfessional reviews were mixed to negative. Rotten Tomatoes recorded an average Tomatometer of 40% from ten critics, while the audience Popcornmeter stood at 98% from more than 250 ratings.[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show) A Metacritic-criticized review called the series \"pretty terrible,\" while another critic noted it was \"a little bit tighter and more produced\" than the video podcast that spawned it.[8](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/norm-macdonald-has-a-show/) On JustWatch the show carried a 26% rating alongside an IMDb user score of 8.5 from about 4,000 votes.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/norm-macdonald-has-a-show)\n\n## Aftermath\n\nMacdonald died of leukemia in 2021. His later Netflix projects included the 2017 special *Hitler's Dog, Gossip & Trickery* and the posthumous *Norm Macdonald: Nothing Special*, and the 2026 Judd Apatow documentary *Norm: The Tale of Norm Macdonald* revisited his career, including his 1997 removal as anchor of *Saturday Night Live*'s \"Weekend Update.\"[9](https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/judd-apatows-norm-macdonald-documentary-norm-the-tale-of-norm-preps-for-release-on-netflix/) • [10](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/why-norm-macdonald-refused-to-bend-the-knee-to-power)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Norm Macdonald Lands Netflix Talk Show, TheWrap (March 9, 2018)](https://www.thewrap.com/norm-macdonald-lands-netflix-talk-show/)\n2. [Norm Macdonald Has a Show, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/norm_macdonald_has_a_show)\n3. [Real Talk with Norm Macdonald, The New Yorker (September 10, 2018 issue)](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/09/10/real-talk-with-norm-macdonald)\n4. [Norm Macdonald's Press Tour Was a Debacle. His New Show Is a Loose Hang, The New Yorker](https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-television/norm-macdonalds-press-tour-was-a-debacle-his-new-show-is-a-loose-hang)\n5. [Norm MacDonald Criticized for Defending Louis C. K. and Roseanne Barr, Time](https://time.com/5393657/norm-macdonald-me-too/)\n6. [Norm Macdonald Has a Show, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/norm-macdonald-has-a-show)\n7. [Norm Macdonald Has a Show, TVmaze](https://www.tvmaze.com/shows/35258/norm-macdonald-has-a-show)\n8. [Norm MacDonald Has a Show Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/norm-macdonald-has-a-show/)\n9. [Judd Apatow's Norm Macdonald Documentary Preps For Release on Netflix, What's on Netflix](https://www.whats-on-netflix.com/news/judd-apatows-norm-macdonald-documentary-norm-the-tale-of-norm-preps-for-release-on-netflix/)\n10. [Why Norm Macdonald Refused to 'Bend the Knee' to Power, The Daily Beast](https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/why-norm-macdonald-refused-to-bend-the-knee-to-power)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Unscripted, reality, and web-native series › Celebrity, family, lifestyle, and court reality series › Lifestyle, dating, and docusoaps › Celebrity and family docusoaps › Premiered 1997 to 2018*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Norm Macdonald Has a Show\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Norm Macdonald Has a Show](https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show](https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Norm Macdonald Has a Show\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/norm-macdonald-has-a-show. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Norm Macdonald Has a Show is a 2018 Netflix talk show, a ten-episode adaptation of the Norm Macdonald Live podcast, hosted by Norm Macdonald and Adam Eget with one celebrity guest per episode, premiering September 14, 2018." }