From the outset, Larry Wilmore’s new show does not seem particularly new. Sure, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore debuted on 19 January on Comedy Central in The Colbert Report’s old timeslot, but the set looks like an almost exact replication of The Daily Show’s set, down to the red and blue colour scheme.
The format of the show isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, either. It starts with a monologue (which show airing after 11pm doesn’t?) that seems like it could be delivered by Jon Stewart, fellow Daily Show graduate John Oliver, or any of the other sharp-tongued guys named John on cable. Then it turns into a panel show where Wilmore talks to a combination of politicians, activists and entertainers. It’s basically the show Politically Incorrect would be today if Bill Maher hadn’t made those flip remarks about terrorists being brave back in September 2001.
Though nothing about Wilmore’s show is especially fresh, it might just be revolutionary. Just look at his panel, which included Senator Cory Booker, rapper and activist Talib Kweli, comedian Bill Burr, and Nightly Show correspondent (and actor) Shenaz Treasury. If you can’t tell by the names, that’s one white dude, an Indian woman and two black guys – three if you count Wilmore as part of the panel. Where on television are you going to see a group of people that diverse having a conversation about anything substantive? Certainly not on network television, which seems to go out of its way only to employ white men for its late-night slots.
It wasn’t just any old conversation either – they were talking about race, specifically the aims of the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and New York City that took place just a few months ago. Wilmore was poking fun at the Oscars for not having more African-American nominees and Al Sharpton for organising a protest about it.
As the Daily Show’s former senior black correspondent, this is well-trodden ground for Wilmore. (His second show is supposed to be about Bill Cosby.) It’s good that he stuck to his wheelhouse because it seems to have allowed him to relax and show off his skills as an excellent interviewer and conversationalist. The flow of the panel seemed to work well and not devolve into silly shouting across the table like it would on other, more politically motivated shows. Wilmore engaged everyone in areas of their own expertise and punctuated the proceedings with clever jokes made on the fly.
I wish The Nightly Show would get rid of the monologue altogether (or shorten it considerably) so that Wilmore could do what no one else is doing in late night and talk to other people well and intelligently. It’s hard enough for adults to squeeze a meaningful conversation about complex topics into 30 minutes and it’s even harder when the show is only devoted to the panel about half the time.
The best part of the show was what will hopefully be a nightly segment called “Keeping it 100”, where Wilmore asks panelists a directed question and the audience decides how authentic and truthful their answer is. It created some of the night’s best laughs and shocking honesty – the audience booed with incredulity when Cory Booker said he wasn’t interested in being president.
So, no, Wilmore isn’t thinking outside of the box or ripping down the format of late-night television to build something completely original. However, he seems to be leading the conversation in new and inclusive ways like no one else on television is doing right now. He doesn’t need the formula to be new when the content he is plugging into that formula is something people haven’t seen before. Late night is reinventing itself in the easiest way possible – by hiring someone outside the boy’s club.
