{"id":181271,"date":"2016-08-15T20:11:00","date_gmt":"2016-08-16T01:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/08\/15\/comedy-central-goes-full-unblackening\/"},"modified":"2016-08-15T20:11:00","modified_gmt":"2016-08-16T01:11:00","slug":"comedy-central-goes-full-unblackening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2016\/08\/15\/comedy-central-goes-full-unblackening\/","title":{"rendered":"Comedy Central Goes Full “Unblackening”"},"content":{"rendered":"

They just canceled Larry Wilmore\u2019s show<\/a>:<\/p>\n

For almost a decade, the combination of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert made Comedy Central destination viewing for fans of late-night comedy and barbed political commentary.<\/span>

<\/span>But over the last 12 months, the post-Stewart and post-Colbert era has not been as easy for the network.<\/span>

<\/span>On Monday, Comedy Central announced that it was canceling \u201cThe Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore\u201d because of falling ratings and a distinct lack of buzz.<\/span>

<\/span>The final episode of Mr. Wilmore\u2019s 11:30 p.m. show \u2014 the slot formerly occupied by Mr. Colbert before he left for CBS \u2014 will be Thursday.<\/span>

<\/span>Kent Alterman, Comedy Central\u2019s president, said he informed Mr. Wilmore of the news late last week. The move, Mr. Alterman said in an interview, was made for a simple reason: The show \u201chasn\u2019t resonated.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cEven though we\u2019ve given it a year and a half, we\u2019ve been hoping against hope that it would start to click with our audience, but it hasn\u2019t happened, and we haven\u2019t seen evidence of it happening,\u201d Mr. Alterman said.<\/span>

<\/span>The awkward timing of the cancellation, just 12 weeks before the presidential election, ultimately came down to a contract, Mr. Alterman said. Mr. Wilmore\u2019s deal, along with those of several of the show\u2019s other staff members, was set to expire in a few weeks and the network had to decide now whether to renew or cancel.<\/span>
Continue reading the main story<\/span>

<\/span>For the time being, Comedy Central\u2019s 12 a.m. show, \u201c@midnight,\u201d will replace \u201cThe Nightly Show\u201d at 11:30 p.m. \u201cThe Daily Show\u201d with Trevor Noah remains at 11 p.m. Mr. Alterman said he hoped to name a full-time replacement for \u201cThe Nightly Show\u201d sometime next year.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cThe Nightly Show\u201d has been known for a signature segment, \u201cKeep It 100,\u201d (slang for telling the truth, no matter the consequences) and for Mr. Wilmore\u2019s often stinging commentary on race and this year\u2019s election. (He called the election to find Barack Obama\u2019s successor \u201cThe Unblackening.\u201d) Though the late-show genre remains heavy on easygoing laughter, any one episode of \u201cThe Nightly Show\u201d could occasionally go for prolonged stretches without a single joke, something that intrigued some critics but failed to attract a broader audience.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cI\u2019m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart and our fans to have had this opportunity,\u201d Mr. Wilmore said in a statement. \u201cBut I\u2019m also saddened and surprised we won\u2019t be covering this crazy election or \u2018The Unblackening\u2019 as we\u2019ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn\u2019t counted on \u2018The Unblackening\u2019 happening to my time slot as well.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It wasn’t getting the demographic that the network wanted, White Bros, because it attempted a meaningful dialogue on race, which is about as welcome by that demo as a turd in a punch bowl.<\/p>\n

I’m bummed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They just canceled Larry Wilmore\u2019s show: For almost a decade, the combination of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert made Comedy Central destination viewing for fans of late-night comedy and barbed political commentary.But over the last 12 months, the post-Stewart and post-Colbert era has not been as easy for the network.On Monday, Comedy Central announced that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1065,1048,1064,988],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-181271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-humor","category-media","category-race"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181271"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181271\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}