Source: Stephen Lovekin / Getty
If I’m keeping it đź’Ż, Comedy Central canceling The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore isn’t a surprise. Ever since the show debuted in January 2015, it was hard to figure out if people truly cared for Wilmore’s brand of late-night comedy, even though his resume includes writing and producing stints on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, The Office, and The Jamie Foxx Show, co-creating The PJs, winning an Emmy for the pilot episode of The Bernie Mac Show, and of course being the Senior Black Correspondent on The Daily Show. He’s been around the block behind the scenes on television, and just as a black guy living on the planet Earth. Getting Wilmore to fill the void that The Colbert Report left was always going to be an uphill battle, but with Trevor Noah captaining The Daily Showduring this year’s election season (which Wilmore calls “The Unblackening” due to America searching for President Obama’s successor); the last thing we need is the more senior voice being ripped from the late-night block.
Comedy Central president Kent Alterman told Variety that the decision to 86 Larry Wilmore was a “business decision,” adding that The Nightly Show “hasn’t resonated with our audience,” which is true when you look at the ratings pattern. (**coughwhitebroscough**) It started out with its strongest average of live viewers during its first month; the debut was watched by 963,000 viewers, but by March 2015, The Nightly Show was pulling in almost 40% less viewers than The Colbert Report had (we’re talking Nielsen stats of 417,000 for Wilmore’s program in the 18-to-49-year-old demographic compared to Colbert‘s 683,000 viewers). The pattern is similar for Trevor Noah’s Daily Show, which has dropped 37% in the ratings since Jon Stewart left. With both shows underperforming in their key demographic, you can’t be surprised that one got the axe, and based on how vitalThe Daily Show brand is to Comedy Central’s late-night block, the decision to get rid of Larry Wilmore makes sense.
The problem? Think back to the last time you connected with something Trevor Noah’s said or done regarding the 2016 presidential campaign. Don’t worry, I’ll wait. He did call out Bernie Sanders being cockblocked by the DNC back in April, but on sheer Donald Trump fuckery alone, we should be getting peak Daily Showtakes on what’s been one of the scariest, most watched elections ever. Twitter was ablaze for the 32947819084093928492 debates that got aired, but it doesn’t feel like Trevor Noah (who recently admitted that he wasn’t ready to inherit Stewart’s throne) has really brought it with the election coverage. It’d be even more intriguing to have a South African who’s trying to make sense of American politics drop all kinds of hot takes on what’s going on during this election season. He very well could be, based on the severe dip in the ratings, at least right now, no one is watching it.
READ MORE: Complex.com
Article Courtesy of Complex
Picture Courtesy of Getty Images
Video Courtesy of Comedy Central, YouTube, and Complex
