Review: The Nightly Show

Posted bygustafkilanderPosted inUncategorized

Thursday 12th of March

Filling the satirical shoes of Stephen Colbert would be more or less impossible for anyone. That’s why American TV network Comedy Central has made the great choice of creating the opposite of the pseudo-conservative bastion that was The Colbert Report.

The host of its replacement, The Nightly Show, is Larry Wilmore, The Daily Show’s Senior Black Correspondent since 2006, and either writer or creator of every black sitcom on American television since 1983. Wilmore is fairly timid for a late night host, his body language is restrictive, his delivery subdued and he lacks the punchiness of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The Nightly Show is the second spin-off of The Daily Show, where Wilmore takes a satirical look at the news, coming from a different point of view than his predecessor, joking about supporting Obama simply because he’s black and devoting each episode to a subject affecting African Americans.

The show broadcast this Thursday dealt with the downfall of boxing. The Nightly Show has opted to cut their monologue in half, to devote more time to a panel discussion, this time with ESPN contributor LZ Grinderson, comedian Keith Robinson, boxing manager Jackie Kallen and former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson. The discussion leans more towards the rise of MMA, or as Robinson puts it, “two guys laying on the ground tea bagging each other,” than the downfall of boxing.

Tyson is the one who gets the most time to speak, mostly because as soon as he blinks, everyone else falls silent. “I grew up in hell, so every time I fought, and fought well, it was one more step out of hell and towards immortal glory,” he says. Tyson gets to the heart of the issue within one sentence, but some of the value is lost in this otherwise seemingly unscripted setup.

The ending segment “keeping it a hundred”, where you’re supposed to answer a question as truthfully as possible, risking getting a shot of “weak tea”, seems contrived at first but is validated when Mike Tyson is asked which boxers he would or wouldn’t beat, despite not one of his answers exceeding three words.

In a time where America’s problems surrounding racism are clearer than ever before, the country needs a show like this, and it needs to be watched. But it’s not very funny, not very enlightening or inspiring for change. Those exact three things are what a show like this needs to be to work, and as it stands, the show fails on all three points.

Published by gustafkilander

I’m a Swedish journalist with international experience, having worked in the UK and Sweden, and having studied in the US, Britain and Sweden. Most recently, I was tasked with explaining American politics and the Democratic primaries for the online news department of the Swedish public TV broadcaster, SVT, where I made videos from scratch. This required a variety of skills like researching, scripting, presenting, filming, lighting, editing, and writing. Before that, I worked for Swedish public radio, where I edited videos and images for the social media feeds of the news department. I also live-tweeted important radio events and was in charge of writing the first words published by Swedish public radio on numerous stories. While I was studying in London, I was a video producer for The Sun, one of the biggest British newspapers. I quickly took on a lot of responsibilities in a fast-paced news environment.

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