Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show has been canceled by Comedy Central due to poor ratings, Variety reported Monday.
The show, part of a string of programs performing satire that largely focuses on roasting Republicans, lasted less than two years after it replaced The Colbert Report in January 2015. Its final edition will be aired Thursday.
The left-leaning Wilmore, who was once a correspondent for The Daily Show, had a recurring segment called "Obama Don’t Care," in which he would praise the president for his "cool" moments of seemingly not caring what people think. This open infatuation with the president did not appear to resonate with audiences, as Variety reported.
Comedy Central president Kent Alterman said the decision was made because "Nightly" had failed to gain ratings traction with the cabler’s core demo of young adults, nor were there positive signs for the show in key social media metrics. Alterman made a point of praising Wilmore and the distinctive approach he brought to commenting on the day’s news.
"We hold Larry in the highest esteem, personally and professionally. He brought a strong voice and point of view to the late-night landscape," Alterman told Variety. "Unfortunately it hasn’t resonated with our audience."
Alterman called it a "business decision" to pull the plug.
"We’ve been monitoring it closely as for a year and a half now and we haven’t seen the signs we need in ratings or in consumption on digital platforms. We’ve been been hoping it would grow," Alterman said.
Left-leaning sites tried to prop up Wilmore when possible for such segments as saying Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has a small penis. Vox touted the show as being on "an impressive upward trend" four days after it premiered.
Oh boy, Larry Wilmore actually questioned the size of Ted Cruz's manhood last night https://t.co/j5pBSXoBG6 pic.twitter.com/0g3Otsi3QC
— Salon (@Salon) December 15, 2015
Wilmore, per tradition by modern comedians, also offered up a fawning performance at this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, thanking Obama for being the country’s first black president and telling him, "You did it, my n*gga!" Unfortunately, the response to his performance was largely devoid of laughter; the Hollywood Reporter said he underwhelmed.
The Daily Show is also struggling badly in the ratings under new host Trevor Noah, who has been more open about his favoritism for the Democratic Party than predecessor Jon Stewart.