Busy Philipps’s talk show Busy Tonight aired its last episode on E! in May this year, but the show still exists on Showtime — well, specifically within the plot of Showtime’s The Affair. In Sunday night’s episode, Maura Tierney’s Helen watches an episode of Busy Tonight where Dominic West’s character Noah’s former publicist (played by Brooke Lyons) discusses sexual-misconduct allegations she has made against Noah. Within the timeline of the show, this is all taking place in 2022, which means Busy Tonight has been running for several seasons.
“Hilariously, the producers of The Affair had far more confidence in our show than the [former] executives at E!†Busy Philipps told TVLine when it reminded her about her cameo. According to her, the scene happened because The Affair’s creator Sarah Treem is a good friend of Busy Tonight producer Eric Gurien. Philipps also promised that she’s still working on getting her show a new life in some form, that will be “not only a continuation but also an expansion of what we were doing with Busy Tonight.†Perhaps Busy will just become the go-to news correspondent on every prestige cable show, our resident talking head within a show, the Perd Hapley of sad-people drama.