Sabrina Carpenter is single and everyone is Gossip Genie’ing her with a new man. Lainey has the definitive answer in the mailbag today, so check your inboxes this afternoon for that. In the meantime, let’s talk about Sabrina’s business. As in, her business business. Because she is good at business!
Sabrina might be the most ready-made popstar since Taylor Swift, in that she’s been preparing for this her whole life—by way of child stardom—she’s a multi-hyphenate, she isn’t camera shy, and since she switched labels, she seems free to be herself. Her messaging, her music, and her branding is SO consistent she’s quickly carved out and dominated her pop space even as other legit mega-stars like Chappell Roan and Olivia Rodrigo are rising concurrently (this is not an invitation to comparison, they can coexist).
Now, she’s doing a holiday variety special, a very old-fashioned piece of show business which has lately gotten a shot in the arm by the Netflix Comedy Industrial Complex. They’ve previously unleashed bonkers holiday specials like Michael Bolton’s Big, Sexy Valentine’s Day Special (made in conjunction with The Lonely Island), and A Very Murray Christmas starring Bill Murray, now Sabrina is doing a more typical version with a special called A Nonsense Christmas with Sabrina Carpenter.
It looks like what you expect from a holiday variety special, a mix of music and sketch comedy, lots of guest stars, some classic songs and some of Sabrina’s original music thrown in, too, except it comes branded with Sabrina’s trademark toppy femme energy and style. It looks like exactly what it says on the tin, and it drops at 9 ET/8 CT tonight on Netflix.
What I am trying to find out, though, is WHO WROTE IT. She’s doing comedy sketches, someone has to write that, but I cannot find those credits anywhere. I even went to the Netflix press site hoping to find the answer in the electronic press kit made available to members of the media, but the closest I can get is that the showrunner is Nikki Boella, and while she’s a very experienced producer, her only writing credit is the 2008 TV movie Indiana Jones and the Ultimate Quest. No shame, a girl’s got to eat, but that makes me think Boella isn’t responsible for writing Nonsense Christmas, at least not solely.
I thought maybe Kyle Mooney, veteran of SNL, co-writer of the superb film Brigsby Bear, and member of the comedy troupe Good Neighbor (all of whom either starred on or wrote/directed for SNL, including Beck Bennett and Emma Stone’s husband, Dave McCary), might be a writer for this special, but he is only credited as one of the guest stars. So who wrote Sabrina Carpenter’s Christmas special?! Inquiring minds want to know.
Here is Sabrina at the premiere of A Nonsense Christmas in New York last night.