In a surprise move, Comedy Central has announced that this Thursday’s episode will be the last for its late-night political talk series The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore. Variety has details on the cancellation, reporting that Comedy Central executives were displeased with the show’s sluggish performance among young adults and on social media. While the show wasn’t an immediate ratings success, it was praised by critics for its thoughtful political commentary, particularly on the most recent shooting deaths of black men by police.
“I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity,” Wilmore says in a statement. “But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.” Wilmore announced the cancellation to his staff earlier today.
Replacing The Nightly Show for the time being in Comedy Central’s 11:30 p.m. ET/10:30 p.m. CT time slot will be the social-media-friendly-by-design “internet game show” @Midnight. In the long term, Comedy Central executives tell Variety they’re “really just trying to be open-minded about all possibilities,” with the unspoken caveat that that shit better be Snapchattable—or else.