Larry Wilmore tried to follow in his former Daily Show colleague Stephen Colbert’s footsteps on Thursday night by taking a stab at hosting CBS’s The Late Show. Unfortunately, Wilmore managed to squeeze in just one, semicorny Donald Trump jab—“I haven’t seen that many angry white people since they canceled a Coldplay concert,” he said of Trump’s immigration speech from Wednesday—before Colbert had to see his old friend out.
Of course, Colbert did invite Wilmore back for an interview, naming him his “brother from another network” and expressing sorrow at the end of his Nightly Show. In a measured conversation spanning politics, comedy, and the fate of Wilmore’s late-night effort—which was canceled by Comedy Central in mid-August due to low ratings—Wilmore acknowledged that his goal of “doing a comedy show about the things that are hardest to talk about” was never the most commercial prospect. And he appeared at peace with its abrupt ending, if only for one nagging observation: “All the best racial stuff happens now that I’ve lost my show!”
