Some big shake-ups in the world of late-night comedy—and, even more specifically, the world of late-night comedian Lilly Singh—today, as Deadline reports that Singh’s NBC series A Little Late has now been canceled at the network. It’s not all doom and gloom, though: Singh is reportedly already on her way to a potential network/streamer hop, as it’s also being reported that she and Kenya Barris are narrowing in on a deal for a new show at Netflix.
A Little Late operated for two seasons at NBC, filling the 1:30 a.m. timeslot that was occupied once upon a time by Carson Daly. NBC is now apparently abandoning that spot on its schedule for good, though, on the logic that, as it turns out, not many people are watching TV at 1:30 in the morning. Singh was notable for being the only woman hosting a late-night talk show on any of the major networks, even if that operated under a definition of “late night” that would be more accurately described as “early morning.” Her series, like most of the evening talk shows, was affected pretty heavily by the COVID-19 shutdowns, taking a long gap in between seasons and swapping out the studio for a more formal arrangement. Now, A Little Late will air its final episode on June 3.
But! News has also broken that Singh has been attached to star in a new show at Netflix, created by Barris, who made his own (very lucrative) move from network to streaming a couple of years back. Singh issued a statement about her future plans earlier today:
Two years ago, I embarked on the wild journey of late night TV. I knew this show was about more than me, and I will be forever grateful for the opportunity and support. Today, I write to you from a similar place of deep gratitude to share some news. I’m going to focus on the slate of projects my company Unicorn Island Productions is developing, and we’re saying goodbye to A Little Late with Lilly Singh. I have a desire to make longer form content telling underrepresented stories, which is difficult to execute on a nightly show. This is just the beginning; I can’t wait to share more with you but this is all I can tease for now. I’m beyond grateful for your support past, present and future. And to the Late With Lilly crew, I’m so proud of the progress we made in diversifying late night. We’ve given 21 people their late night debut this season. That’s pretty incredible and it’s been a true honour.
32 Comments
If Netflix is giving her a talk show, she needs to get some assurances about how many episodes they’ll back. I’m still stinging from the cancellations of Patriot Act and other, lesser, Netflix talk shows.
In other words, the show is being extended for 12 episodes.
I’m pretty sure Netflix isn’t in the talk show game anymore. They’ve had quite a few going back to Chelsea Handler in 2016. Since talk shows tend to be topical, they’re not a great fit for Netflix who tend to want shows that can last in their catalog for years. Nobody is going back to watch a talk show from five years ago.
… only because Letterman hasn’t released any of his old episodes for viewing anywhere.
Exactly. If one of the streamers put up old Letterman or Conan, I bet they’d get some decent views. Lots and lots of youtube content showing different celebs/bands/standups appearances (I particularly like watching all of Norm MacDonald’s Letterman & Conan visits!).
Heck, even old Tonight Show w Carson airs on one of the retro channels. I will check them out now and then if it’s Don Rickles or something like that.
Yeah, knowing Netflix, I foresee a 13 episode first season, 8 episodes for a second season six months later, then a quiet announcement that it’s being cancelled.
I haven’t sampled much of Lilly Singh’s comedy yet. If I’m ok with John Oliver and Trevor Noah, will I appreciate her?
a definition of “late night” that would be more accurately described as “early morning.”
Wow. That’s the first time I’ve ever seen anyone make that observation. My mind is, like, blown, man.As a night owl, fuck abandoning that slot. Also, cheap movies instead of infomercials and whichever network’s/station’s 3rd-tier news, please.
I don’t think that networks are going to air old movies in that slot last year. Other than when they aired a few the past year due to covid messing with production, broadcast networks stopped showing movies years ago. I would guess that they are going to have some generic entertainment show in that slot. Independent stations, basic cable networks and streaming services have tons of old movies to watch.
Fellow night owl here. I agree with you on the whole infomercial thing. Infomercials suck.It wouldn’t be the end of the world if they ran a different B-movie every night for two hours after Late Night and then just rolled into Early Today at 3:30 a.m.
Dismissed guy: what a tiresome, point-missing, long-winded pompous tit you are.
I don’t know how many times I’ve been working late at night with the TV on and accidentally caught Carson Daly’s show, but it was often, and I often found myself surprised at the quality of the musical acts he had on. I guess it helped that he didn’t have a studio and just basically recorded a song from the middle of a club gig, but still, whoever was booking the music on that show had good taste.All this is to say… I am against abandoning that time slot. How else am I going to keep my procrastination going late into the night (or early morning, as the observation was so astutely made)?
So she’s definitely being replaced by Amber Ruffin, right?
That was my first thought when I saw the headline, but the story says NBC might be abandoning the slot. That would mean no network feed and the local stations would program the slot. So get ready for more infomercials.
Lily Singh is about as funny as a burning orphanage. Actually no, that’s way funnier than this particular “bisexual woman of colour”.
I remember when that time slot had Later With Bob Costas Monday through Thursday and music videos on Friday. Costas was a pretty good interviewer.
Yeah, he did an interview with Rod Steiger on that show that was incredible. Definitely a good interviewer.
I tried to like her show, but to be perfectly honest I find Singh annoying.
Same here, which is saying a lot as I like Michelle Wolf a lot.
I think that’s probably because there’s usually a point to Wolf’s comedy bits.
Yeah, I gave the show a few shots and just could not get into it at all. The real shame here is that Amber Ruffin won’t get a chance to take the time slot before it’s given over to infomercials.
Last I heard is Ruffin’s show has done well on Peacock, so I think there might be a chance for it on NBC if they don’t kill the time slot. Even if they do kill the slot, I’m sure they’ll still be renewing her show.
She’s super annoying, her characters are obnoxious, and she just isn’t that funny. She also wasn’t funny on YouTube.
She has major camp counselor energy, just not as funny as any camp counselor I’ve ever met.
Yeah, I definitely get the sense that she’s trying too hard. It probably has a lot to do with her origins on the Internet, where it has to be fast and funny or people just click through.
She spells ‘honor’ with a u. Go Canada!Hopefully her next show will be very successful. (Sketch based? Sitcom?) She’s funny, bright and extremely cute. I scarcely ever watched the show in either season. I’m just not up that late. Mainly, I would watch the YouTube clips, which of course, is how she became famous to begin with.
1:30 am is not early morning by any definition you hack.
[FARTS]
Not surprised…the first version of the show was…Not good. The second was much improved- she seemed way more comfortable, and I loved the interview with Amber Ruffin. Still though, not surprised.
Agreed, she came up with some fun stuff during the second season.
She was bad and the show was actively bad and not funny. At a certain point I thought maybe she needs to go back to her weird racist impressions of black people from her youtube days that made her so popular cause this is not it.
Timeslots (and honestly the entire concept of late night talk shows) are pretty dated and irrelevant at this point, but if you’re gonna have them, the super late, dead of the night, nobody’s watching slots should be given to unique, unhinged, experimental voices. Adult Swim seems to be the only network that gets this – keep it low budget, give them creative freedom, and unleash the pure id of someone like Eric Andre, Tim & Eric, or Vernon Chatman and John Lee (the Wonder Showzen guys). It doesn’t happen that often, especially on network TV, but when it does it’s magic. There’s a reason Conan O’Brien has a rabid fanbase to this day, even though most of those fans stopped watching his show live in 2006.
Someone like Lily Singh was never going to be right for that timeslot because her entire brand is safe, hokey, click-baity front-page of YouTube shit. Nobody watching TV at 1:30 in the morning wants to see that, they want to see Too Many Cooks.