Larry Wilmore was yanked from our screens when Comedy Central canceled “The Nightly Show” last month, but you didn’t think that would keep him off late-night TV, did you?
The former host was back Thursday to join fellow Comedy Central alum Stephen Colbert — and hijack his “The Late Show” opening monologue.
It all sounded normal as Wilmore took to the CBS stage to a roaring crowd and said: “Welcome to the ‘Late Show,’ I’m you’re host, Larry Wilmore,” before taking a jab at Trump’s immigration speech in Arizona the previous evening. “I haven’t seen that many angry white people since they canceled a Coldplay concert.
However, he was soon reined in by Colbert, who strutted out onto the stage with a stern expression and tapped him on the shoulder. “This is my show, why are you doing the monologue?”
“I’m sorry,” Wilmore quipped, “I thought whoever leaves Comedy Central at 11:30 gets the ‘Late Show.'”
In the wake of his show’s sudden cancelation by Comedy Central, Wilmore told TheWrap last month that it was a tough week after he’d been delivered the crushing blow, “because you become a family when you do these things. The emotions have been swirling.
The short notice “was the biggest surprise, because I’ve been in television a long time. I know shows don’t always make it. That’s just the way it is … I thought that if we weren’t going to make it that we would not get renewed for a third season, because that’s a decision that’s being made.
“I was surprised that we didn’t get to finish the second season that was already picked up,” he said.
The doomed “Nightly Show” was not only burdened with the gargantuan task of filling the “Colbert Report’s” shoes — it had to do so without all that many Jon Stewart lead-ins to boot. (“Nightly” ended up following Trevor Noah’s “Daily Show” for something like 143 of its 259 episodes.)
Plus, Wilmore got off to a rough start, having to drop his initial title of “The Minority Report” to a bad Fox broadcast adaptation, settling with the cutesy-but-not-so-clever “Nightly Show.”
That’s not all. From Sept. 28 to July 31, “The Nightly Show” averaged just 724,000 total viewers per night. Comparably, from Sept. 30, 2014 to July 27, 2015, Colbert’s final season had pulled in 1.686 million total viewers per night.
Larry Wilmore's Greatest 'Nightly Show' Moments (Videos)
On Aug. 18, “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" will come to an end after 20 months in the Comedy Central timeslot once held by "The Colbert Report." While it never came close to reaching the numbers of its predecessor, Wilmore proved in the series' 259 episodes that he could be as powerful a satirist and commentator as Jon Stewart with his takes on major political and social stories.
On Alton Sterling: "No matter what his crimes were, Alton Sterling did not deserve to be executed for them. Look guys, the punishment for resisting arrest shouldn’t be death. The punishment for selling bootleg CDs shouldn’t be death. The punishment for having a gun in an open-carry state shouldn’t be death. The punishment for being a black man shouldn’t be death.”
Imitating Bill Cosby: "I couldn’t rape a fly, and not just because I don’t know what their sexual business is all about down there, with the suckin’ and the feelers and the 1,000 eyes!”
On Fox News' "War On Cops" stories: "I'm not a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter, but I'm pretty sure their agenda is just to get police to stop shooting unarmed black people. I mean, the fact that we even need that movement is insane and the fact that you're trying to presto change it to a war on cops is even more insane."
On CNN's coverage of the Samuel DuBose shooting: “Is that his mugshot? This guy was just killed by the other guy and you put their two mugshots together like they’re a bank robbin’ team? I get it, he may have had a record, but you get what 'victim' means, right CNN?”
On Fox News' coverage of the Baltimore riots: “Let me give you guys some advice: When s--- like this goes down, all of you should just go home and show reruns of ‘Killing Jesus' because you’re never going to be able to relate to this.”
On the Confederate Flag's in South Carolina: "In 1961 [the flag] was a reminder to black people that they should know their place. It has always been used as a symbol of intimidation and terror. In fact, because displaying the swastika is illegal across much of Europe, skinheads and neo-Nazis often adopt the Confederate flag in its place. It’s such a racist symbol that it does double duty as the backup racist symbol for another racist symbol!"
On comparisons of Kim Davis to Martin Luther King, Jr.: MLK "was actually in opposition to the Church’s unwillingness to support the oppressed. Kim Davis on the other hand is using her church to oppress people even more ... Going to jail for what you believe in does not necessarily put you on par with Martin Luther King. Jeffrey Dahmer was in jail because he believed in eating people. That doesn’t make him a freedom fighter!”
After Donald Trump's second amendment comments: "At this point, if you vote for Trump, you’re just a d---. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I hope you get destroyed by a horse-sized duck. How’s that?"
On the Republicans' attack against Planned Parenthood: "It’s a Pap smear campaign. It is, I’m sorry, but it is, that’s exactly what it is. And in a Pap smear campaign, people don’t care about facts. So these attacks don’t seem to be revealing any illegal activity. Instead, they’re shaming women, their health practitioners, and doctors."
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Though his show struggled in ratings, the late-night host had some funny takes on serious topics ranging from Black Lives Matter to Planned Parenthood
On Aug. 18, “The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore" will come to an end after 20 months in the Comedy Central timeslot once held by "The Colbert Report." While it never came close to reaching the numbers of its predecessor, Wilmore proved in the series' 259 episodes that he could be as powerful a satirist and commentator as Jon Stewart with his takes on major political and social stories.
