Former Daily Show host Jon Stewart made a cameo appearance on Thursday night’s finale of The Nightly Show to wish Larry Wilmore the best before cancellation and informed him that he shouldn’t “confuse cancellation with failure” because his fellow far-left comedian actually did resonate for having “started a conversation that was not on television when you began” about race in America.
Stewart kicked off his tribute to Wilmore as he sat quietly next to him that he had a show that was canned and when that happened, “a very wise man said to me: do not confuse cancellation with failure.”
Moving on from his own experience, Stewart informed Wilmore that he was “tasked” with a very difficult job and he’s done so “beautifully” by providing a “voice to underserved voices in the media arena and you did it — it was a show that was raw and poignant and funny and smart and all those things and you did it from scratch.”
Arguably taking a shot at Comedy Central President Kent Alterman for revealing that Wilmore’s being axed because he didn’t “resonate,” Stewart spun for his friend that he did because his show (despite its horrid ratings, unfunny attacks on conservatives, etc.) did and shows like his in the future will succeed because he went first in making everything about race and insulting conservatives:
You started a conversation that was not on television when you began and you worked with a group of people who you invited to that conversation to collaborate with you, to sharpen that conversation, and what you don't realize is, you walk out of this room and that conversation doesn't end and all the people that you work with are going to take what they learned here, and what they learned from you, and the beautiful experience that they had, and you're going to start to see them doing things in the business as well.
What Stewart at least wouldn’t acknowledge publically and various TV critics is that the failure of The Nightly Show could squarely be placed on the shoulders of white liberals (mostly younger ones) who haven’t seen the appeal of both Wilmore and Stewart’s successor Trevor Noah that they had for Stewart and now-Late Show host Stephen Colbert.
The relevant portion of the transcript from Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on August 18 can be found below.
Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore
August 18, 2016
11:38 p.m. Eastern
JON STEWART: I have been in situations in what we call show business, television, where they have, my name has been on the show. And they’ve — what do you call it there — lock the door and to me to, this was a paramount executive get your [bleep] and get out.
LARRY WILMORE: Right.
STEWART: And a very wise man said to me —
WILMORE: Uh-huh.
STEWART: — do not confuse cancellation with failure. And I took that — [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] to heart. So I will say this. What you, my friend, were tasked to do, you have done and done beautifully. You — [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE] you gave voice, you gave voice to underserved voices in the media arena and you did it — it was a show that was raw and poignant and funny and smart and all those things and you did it from scratch and what you and Rory and Robin and your tremendous collaborators, and Dre in the booth and you took something and got better every [bleep] day [CHEERS AND APPLAUSE]
WILMORE: Thank you.
STEWART: And I think that — we talked about a little thing called, I guess the word someone uses resonance, did you resonate with an audience? I would say — not only that, but in an impotant way, but in a way that you don't even realize yet and won't reveal itself for years to come and it's this. You started a conversation that was not on television when you began and you worked with a group of people who you invited to that conversation to collaborate with you, to sharpen that conversation, and what you don't realize is, you walk out of this room and that conversation doesn't end and all the people that you work with are going to take what they learned here, and what they learned from you, and the beautiful experience that they had, and you're going to start to see them doing things in the business as well. And taking that and taking other experiences and you're going to watch that flourish and that's going to have you on it.
