Comedy Central has canceled The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore after a year and a half on the air. The last episode of the show will air Thursday.
“We thank Larry and The Nightly Show staff for their tireless efforts across the past two years and the conversations the show generated by addressing social issues of great importance to the country, always challenging people’s attitudes, perceptions and bias,” said Comedy Central in a statement.
The late-night program debuted on Comedy Central in January 2015 in the time slot previously occupied by The Colbert Report. Hosted by longtime Daily Show contributor and writer-producer-comedian Larry Wilmore, the series focused on topical comedy; in particular, issues of race.
Instead of interviews with high-profile guests, The Nightly Show often featured roundtable conversations. In what might be the show’s most celebrated feature, Keeping it 100, Wilmore rewarded panelists who answered his questions.
The cancellation will leave The Daily Show’s Trevor Noah as the only black host in late-night comedy, a circumstance Wilmore addressed in a frank statement:
“I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity. But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. … I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.”
The show has languished in the ratings and lagged behind its competitors on social media. Wilmore garnered more attention, though not of the entirely positive kind, for his set at the White House Correspondents Dinner in April, where he mercilessly skewered the Washington, D.C., press corps.