Since taking over hosting duties from Stephen Colbert on Comedy Central earlier this year, Larry Wilmore has assembled one of the most diverse writing teams on late night television.
On Saturday, Wilmore and “The Nightly Show” team appeared on the “Keepin’ it 100” panel during the New York Comedy Festival, where he explained why it was important to him to hire a diverse staff.
“People ask me, ‘How is your team so diverse?’ Because that’s what I wanted,” he said, according to Entertainment Weekly. “My mission from the beginning was to find people from different backgrounds and hire an eclectic team.”
Since its January premiere, “The Nightly Show” has consistently covered race, from the racial disparities during this year’s Academy Awards to blasting Fox News for its “racial approach” to covering the string of violence in Baltimore earlier this year.
While Wilmore admitted that his show is only highlighting issues that should be important to everybody, he also actively relies on his audience to help convey the show’s message.
“I’m always aware of the fact, no matter what show I’m doing, that I’m not in a vacuum. I’m in a relationship with the audience,” he said. “And I’m very respectful of that relationship, believe me. I’ve done enough TV over the years. I always feel like once I put on the show, it really belongs to the audience and you become a curator of the show. That’s really how the relationship works. And the audience knows. If you’re fucking it up, they will let you know.”
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