NBCUniversal's Peacock Announces 2 New and Timely Late Night Shows With Larry Wilmore and Amber Ruffin

NBCUniversal’s new streaming platform Peacock just announced some new comedy content that is very relevant and needed during these times. Amber Ruffin will be hosting The Amber Ruffin Show and Larry Wilmore will host the Untitled Larry Wilmore Show as part of the streaming platform’s weekly topical late-night block.

You may know Wilmore from writing on just about every damn Black TV show ever from the ‘90s-2000s and most recently Insecure, Black-ish and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. You may remember Ruffin from such credits such as Late Night with Seth Meyers, Drunk History, the 2020 Emmy-nominated A Black Lady Sketch Show and for being the first African American woman to write for a late night network talk show in the U.S.

Wilmore’s show may be untitled, but we do have some info on the content via Peacock’s press release:

Emmy Award-winning producer, actor and comedian Larry Wilmore is bringing his distinct voice to streaming with a new weekly special series. Larry will have real discussions with high profile people from all different backgrounds including sports, politics and entertainment. Each episode will not only cover the election but will also engage in the important conversations of the week. It will be funny, sometimes serious, potentially awkward and most definitely honest.

“I’m honored to have the chance to not only be back on television but to partner with the great team at Peacock,” Wilmore said in a statement. “Apparently there’s a lot going on in the world right now and a big election happening soon, so I’m happy to have a place in the conversation.”

Here’s the scoop on Ruffin’s show, via Peacock’s press release sent to The Root:

Each week The Amber Ruffin Show will showcase Amber’s signature smart and silly take on the week’s news. No matter what’s happening in the world, Amber will respond to it with a charming mix of seriousness, nonsense, and evening gowns. The Amber Ruffin Show is a topical late-night show with just the good parts—the comedy.

“Having a late-night show on Peacock is so exciting!” Ruffin said in a statement. “We can’t wait to write sketches, songs and jokes about this terrible time we call now!”

Both Wilmore and Ruffin participated in a Comedy panel hosted by Peacock as part of the CTAM portion of the semiannual Television Critics Association Press Tour, shortly after the news was announced. Both comedians took a lighthearted approach and moderated their own respective panels. In typical hilarious fashion, each of them answered any questions about format and guests in as generic and cryptic a manner as possible.

As Essence noted, Ruffin’s new show is an extra big deal because she will be the only Black woman hosting a late night TV show. Ruffin, on why you haven’t seen more non-white hosts in the late night television industry:

“I mean the reason you haven’t seen them is because there’s that thing old Black people tell you all the time, ‘You gotta see it to be it.’ And you do kinda have to see it to be it. Sometimes I do a panel and people will be like, when did you know you wanted to do late night? I go, “Never.” I mean, for a minute while Arsenio Hall was a late-night host, I thought maybe, then that stopped quickly when his show stopped. So I do think people are starting now to be like—you like to act like it doesn’t affect you, but it does, what you see affects you. And now I think we’re able to shake off what we’ve been fed and people are realizing “Oh, what I take in doesn’t have to look a certain way.” And conversely people are like, ‘Oh, because I look this way doesn’t mean that I’m relegated to these positions, I can do anything.’ And people are like ‘Oh, I can watch anything.’ So I think that’s the way everything’s headed. Everyone’s fixin’ to be everything.”

Wilmore even joked about that whole “calling former President Obama his nigga” thing that everyone kept talking about. Since his show is still untitled, will it be called “My Nigga?” Probably not.

Wilmore, on what to expect from his show:

“We’re definitely going to be marrying the guests with the topic. So, sometimes we’ll have guests who are very suited to talk about the topic, but maybe in a way that is different. For instance, we may want to—like if we do a show where we’re talking about Karen. Like, what’s going on with Karen? Why are all these Karens happening? You know, we might talk to someone who was Karen-ed. I don’t know, you know, who knows, you know. Or about that phenomenon. Of course, I’d love to have someone like President Obama. And he’s always been on my wish list to interview long form. It would be great to have him on before the election. And there’s a lot of people out there who are just real—there’s so many interesting people out there, you know, who aren’t necessarily on the high guest list.By ‘high guest’ I mean, they’re not people who are promoting movies or TV shows. They’re just people who are interesting to talk to. And that’s all we want to promote on the show, some real interesting conversations.”

The Amber Ruffin Show and Untitled Larry Wilmore Show will debut in September 2020 on Peacock.

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