HBO Won’t Make Sarah Silverman’s Late-Night Show, Which Is Rude

Late last year we got some good news: HBO had bought a late-night pilot and a stand-up special from Sarah Silverman. But 2020 is getting in one last gut punch with this news: HBO did not pick up the pilot to series. Which I think is really rude of it, honestly, but so be it. Silverman revealed this development talking to The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead on Friday’s episode of Two Friends: A Nice Time Hanging Out With People Who Know Each Other Well. “I’m less sad than I was about [it], but I felt like, Wow. I feel they needed this show, to be honest,” Silverman said. “But it’s their channel; they can do whatever they want. Who cares.” But the company is still expecting a special from Silverman, which is not done yet. “I’ve never booked a special before having a special. I don’t even do specials!” she said. “I’ve done three specials in my whole career because I don’t even ever think about it until some place goes, ‘You wanna do a special?’ and I’m like, ‘Oh, yeah.’”

Meanwhile, Winstead went to a lot of trouble to film her new special, Corona Borealis, currently available on Vimeo on Demand. She decided to take the DIY route: She found a guy with an island (apparently this is a Minnesota thing), she made everyone a picnic basket, and she had custom masks that glow in the dark for the audience. But now that it’s done, she’s run into a bit of a hitch: Twitter and Facebook have banned her from buying ads on their platforms.

Winstead told Silverman that Facebook refuses to let her buy ads because she is “political,” while Twitter banned her from running ads due to a profanity in her profile. The profanity in question? “#AbortionAF,” which stands for Abortion Access Front, an activist organization Winstead founded. When she attempted to appeal Twitter’s decision, she says it informed her that because she also used profanity in her feed, her money remained no good to it. So now, Winstead has found herself in the unenviable position of having a special out with no way to promote it on two of the largest advertising networks in the world. “Are you shitting me?” Winstead asked, and I would like to second that because, like, are you?

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