Comedy Central is canning The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. The network announced Monday the final episodes of Wilmore’s 11:30 show will air this Thursday (August 18). The network has decided against renewing or negotiating Wilmore's expiring contract in the midst of a new presidential campaign and wildly controversial patriotism. Twelve weeks before the election, the channels 12am show, @Midnight will take its place (for now) while the network prepares for a replacement.

The channel's President Kent Alterman told The New York Times the cancelation came because the show "hasn't resonated." He added, “Even though we’ve given it a year and a half, we’ve been hoping against hope that it would start to click with our audience, but it hasn’t happened and we’ve haven’t seen evidence of it happening.”

Alterman informed Wilmore, 54, of the news late last week, and said he hopes to announce a full-time replacement for The Nightly Show sometime next year. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah will remain at its current 11 p.m.

“I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity,” Wilmore said in a statement. “But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.”

 

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