Comedy fans are well aware of the extent of Larry Wilmore's genius. The mainstream, however, seems a little less aware. For those who don't know, Larry was the mastermind behind the origin of Bernie Mac's beloved sitcom, as well as The PJs, HBO's Insecure, and Grown-ish. Larry has also been a writer on The Office, Teen Angel, The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air, and In Living Color.
Larry had also been a correspondent on The Daily Show for a number of years, building a bit of a cult-like fanbase for himself. On the Comedy Central show, Larry also proved to have a keen and biting insight on American politics. This is why former Daily Show host Jon Stewart chose Larry to headline a replacement show for The Colbert Report when Stephen Colbert got the job as David Letterman's replacement on The Late Show. In January 2015, Larry hosted The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore but just a year and a half later, Comedy Central decided to cancel the show. Here's the real reason why....
What Happened To The Larry Wilmore Show?
A year and a half is certainly not a long time for a show to be on the air. News broke that The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore would be canceled in August 2016, just a few months before the highly-charged election between Hilary Clinton and Donald Trump came to a close. The president of Comedy Central commented on their decision by saying, "We hold Larry in the highest esteem, personally and professionally. He brought a strong voice and point of view to the late-night landscape. Unfortunately, it hasn't resonated with our audience."
The decision for canceling The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore apparently comes down to the fact that the ratings started on a steady decline just two months after the show premiered. There were a few months were viewership climbed, but Larry lost much of his audience by the time his show got axed.
Larry Wilmore's diehard fans were furious about the decision, and both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert voiced their disapproval. But it wasn't enough for Comedy Central to reconsider. They just couldn't defend the fact that he went from around 900,000 viewers to 500,000 on a good day.
How Larry Wilmore Feels About The Nightly Show Getting Canceled
During an interview with Vulture, Larry Wilmore revealed that he was "very surprised" when he found out that Comedy Central was canceling his show. Even though he could see that his numbers weren't as good as he had hoped, he believed that his show would at least go through until the election was over.
"I’m still very thankful for being able to have this opportunity. It is very rare," Larry said to Vulture after his 2016 cancelation. "Whenever you’re given the opportunity, you have to take it with that humility ingrained in it, knowing that not everybody gets the chance to do it, and you appreciate it while you have it."
While Larry was clearly grateful for the chance, he didn't hold back his heartbreak.
"I’m disappointed. It’s television, and it’s how it gets measured — numbers. It’s very disappointing because you can only do the best show that you can do, and if the stars don’t align, I can’t argue back at them, saying, 'No, you’re wrong, the numbers are great.' What can I really say? I’m not angry at them. I’m disappointed that it didn’t work out well."
Larry also wondered if Trevor Noah replacing Jon Stewart as the host of The Daily Show ended up hurting his follow-up show.
"Our numbers were great when Jon Stewart was there, so I don’t know. I could make the argument that Jon not being our lead-in hurt our numbers. There are a lot of ways you can make the argument."
Larry Wilmore Is Proud Of The Nightly Show
While critics were a tad lukewarm when reviewing the show, there was a consensus that Larry was addressing topics that many late-night political shows shied away from. This included a highly-publicized debate about the N-word on the show.
"There were a lot of people who really appreciated the fact that we tackled those subjects. And there are some people who are never going to like that no matter what you do. So it’s hard to point to one thing. 'Well, you shouldn’t have talked about that, and you would’ve done a good show.' And it’s like, 'Thanks, but I’m not going to have a unique show,'" Larry explained before revealing what he was most proud about as the host of The Nightly Show. "I am the most proud that we set out to do a show to present voices that rarely get a chance to be heard on television, people who don’t get to be seen all the time, and to take the underdog perspective a lot of the time, and to tackle tough issues like race or even class when there are so many people who are feeling left out in the country right now."