On April 3, internet superstar Grace Helbig made the leap to TV with the debut of “The Grace Helbig Show” on E!.
Known for her “It’s Grace” channel on YouTube and her steadily growing social media empire, Helbig brought her unique brand of awkward and adorable humor to the small screen. The weekly chat show started strong, demonstrating just the right amount of quirk and charm to benefit the Internet personality.
For those new to the world of #TeamInternet, Grace Helbig got her start online back in 2008 with “Daily Grace,” a vlog on My Damn Channel, a web-based comedy network. Over the next five years, her following grew to 3 million subscribers, easily making her one of the most successful Internet stars to date. In 2013, Helbig left My Damn Channel, which had owned the rights to all of her content, to pursue her own creative vision.
Helbig launched her channel, “It’s Grace,” the following year, quickly rebuilding her sizeable and faithful audience. Not long after, she released her New York Times best-selling “Grace’s Guide,” a tongue-in-cheek self-help book about the art of being an adult. “The Grace Helbig Show” marks her biggest endeavor so far—and it’s already off to a solid start.
The show opened with an amusing and apropos introduction from Helbig: “This isn’t your average television show because I’m not your average television show host—I’m just a little different. I’m like breakfast for dinner, or webbed toes, or an introvert who’s been making videos on the internet for years that someone decided should have a TV show.”
Unlike the typical late-night talk show format, “The Grace Helbig Show” forgoes a studio audience and even a conventional set. The show is based primarily in Helbig’s “house”—really, a set decorated with funky wallpaper, bright colors and farm-animal-shaped furniture. Helbig speaks directly to the camera, like she would in her online videos and interacts with her guests in the house’s various rooms.
After a quick segment highlighting news items and trends in social media—á la “The Soup”—Helbig sits down with her first guest, comedian Aisha Tyler (“The Talk”). As much as an Internet personality’s day job leaves her mostly on her own talking to a camera, Helbig really shines in her interactions with her guests. With Tyler, Helbig managed to ask fun questions that have her rolling with laughter and the audience utterly charmed.
Later, Helbig’s best friend and fellow YouTube star Mamrie Hart (“You Deserve a Drink”) stops by to play an uproarious viral-video-based drinking game. At the close of the show, DJ and online personality Flula Borg, Helbig’s final guest, helps her compose a quirk-tastic theme tune for her show.
The debut episode wasn’t perfect—Helbig’s discomfort and nerves were adorable but very obvious and the house-set felt a little too staged at times—but it was overall a very solid start. Going from online videos no longer than a few minutes to a half-hour talk show format could have easily gone wrong, but Helbig managed to translate her endearing personality and humor very well.
Surrounding herself with more fellow YouTube stars will ease Helbig’s transition to the small screen. Internet personalities have captured modern audiences because of their accessibility and authenticity—Helbig is a shining example of this. With “The Grace Helbig Show,” she has a rare opportunity to bring that to television, where being fake is considered “real” and being a good talk show host means having the biggest audience and salary. As she has always done, Helbig stayed true to herself and created something quite special; with the help of “The Grace Helbig Show,” her star will only continue to rise.
“The Grace Helbig Show” airs Fridays night at 8:30 p.m. on E!.
