Since Philipps is a well-connected star, her interviews tended to be fun and lighthearted; occasionally, she’d make her friends dive into gossip that could fuel headlines. She grilled a sick but still game Andy Samberg on being a sex symbol. She made her former frenemy Chad Michael Murray revisit their time together on Dawson’s Creek. She coaxed an impressive Matthew McConaughey impression out of her best friend Michelle Williams. “You’ve ruined me ever doing another talk show again,” Mandy Moore tweeted after her appearance on Busy Tonight. “No one can compete.”

Even with the YouTube star Lilly Singh poised to replace the retiring Carson Daly and take over Last Call this fall, the late-night landscape—with its dominant lineup of Jimmys—remains relatively women-free. Sure, newcomers overall have it rough (think The Joel McHale Show and The Opposition With Jordan Klepper), but male hosts more often get the chance to work through the learning curve. Seth Meyers didn’t figure out how to reinvent the monologue until more than a year into his gig. James Corden’s “Carpool Karaoke” didn’t become a sensation until Adele’s edition in Season 2. Female hosts, however? Even the shows on streaming sites that don’t have to abide by TV schedules failed to survive. Netflix canceled Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea in late 2017 after two seasons and axed Michelle Wolf’s The Break after 10 episodes in August. A month earlier, BET ended Robin Thede’s The Rundown. And in January, Hulu opted not to renew Sarah Silverman’s I Love You, America.

Now Philipps has gone off the air, right when she appeared to be figuring out how to make her show work. Her discussion about abortion was broadcast the day after the cancellation news broke, and her final episode demonstrated how far she’d come as a host. She landed every joke by embracing her rambling sensibility. (“I just want to give you a statistic: There are more men named Todd in the entertainment industry than there are women,” she began one. “I, actually, we made that up. I don’t know if that’s true. But it feels true; it feels right.”) Philipps welcomed her famous friends Linda Cardellini, Michelle Williams, Jennifer Carpenter, Whitney Cummings, and Christa Miller for a conversation that could’ve devolved into cross talk, but instead flowed smoothly with banter and tears. The half hour ended with Philipps singing one last lullaby before shedding Mr. Nightgown and exiting her studio to cheers from her staff—a mostly female creative team led by Caissie St. Onge and that also includes Philipps’s sister, segment producer Leigh Ann Dolan.*

The team looked ready to party; after all, Busy Tonight doesn’t have to be over for good. Philipps is shopping the series to other networks, and in April, she hinted at the show’s developing point of view. “Our show is political. It’s just not necessarily partisan,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “But … having a woman on television in late night is inherently political. And my body is political, and me talking casually about bleeding and my period … and talking freely about sexuality and women’s bodies is an act of defiance.” The show was just beginning to find a way to express that defiance—and if other late-night hosts are allowed time to push through growing pains, shouldn’t Busy Philipps get a chance, too?

*This story previously misstated the role of the producer Leigh Ann Dolan. We regret the error.

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