A Little Late with Lilly Singh is an American late-night talk show hosted by Canadian comedian and YouTuber Lilly Singh, on NBC. The program premiered on September 16, 2019, as a replacement for Last Call with Carson Daly in its 1:35 a.m. ET/PT time slot. Singh is the first openly bisexual person, as well as the first person of Indian and South Asian descent, to host an American broadcast major network late-night talk show.
History
Last Call with Carson Daly aired on NBC since 2002 as the third and final original program of the network's late-night lineup, behind Late Night and The Tonight Show. It was initially formatted as a studio-based talk show, but was later retooled to consist of interview and performance segments filmed on-location. When Daly was announced as the new social media correspondent for Today in 2013, it was stated that Daly would be moving from Last Call to the show. However, Daly would remain as host in a reduced capacity, only providing introductions between the segments. On February 12, 2019, NBC announced that Last Call would conclude after its 2,000th and final episode, with Daly citing his desire to focus on Today, The Voice, and other new projects. NBC stated that it intended to replace Last Call with a new program. NBC's co-chairman of entertainment George Cheeks intended the timeslot to become a "creative playground" for a personality who could be positioned as a "digital" and "relevancy" play, as opposed to a "ratings play". Chrissy Teigen was suggested as a possibility, but she declined. Former Late Night with Conan O'Brien producer John Irwin suggested YouTube celebrity Lilly Singh—noting her ability to perform both serious interviews and comedic material. The Hollywood Reporter also noted that Singh's experience with online video would also bolster the program's digital presence. On March 14, 2019, NBC officially announced A Little Late with Lilly Singh. That night, Singh appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to promote the upcoming series. Singh became the first woman among the current generation of late-night hosts on the major broadcast networks, and the first late-night host to ever publicly identify as bisexual. The series will be executive produced by Singh and her business partner Polly Auritt, along with John Irwin and others. Aliyah Silverstein was named showrunner. The network agreed to accommodate Singh's other ventures and entertainment projects, primarily by having her pre-record seasons in advance. The first season of 97 episodes was filmed over a three-month span in late-2019. Due to this filming schedule and the longer gaps between filming and broadcast, the program does not focus on topical subjects like other late-night shows. Irwin argued that the show was meant to focus more on comedy and Singh's personal experiences, as there were already "a million places" to get "current information". The show maintains its own YouTube channel, featuring highlights as well as other web-exclusive content. Cheeks explained that the network did not mind if viewers discovered the series via its YouTube content rather on TV. Due to its digital presence, Singh thought of each episode " a life for the next 24 hours" after their television premiere. On May 13, 2020, NBC renewed the show for a second season. Regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the show's staff has said they would prefer to be in the studio rather than having remote segments, and will wait for clearance from NBC and local officials before starting their planning for the new season.
Format
The series features a mix of in-studio interviews and pre-taped segments such as comedy sketches.
Broadcast
A Little Late premiered on September 16, 2019, with its official YouTube channel posting the series premiere episode at 10:00 p.m. ET, in advance of its television broadcast. An hour-long primetime special aired on September 18, 2019, following the season 14 finale of America's Got Talent. In Singh's home country of Canada, A Little Late was acquired by Global. It airs as a lead-out for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert—airing an hour earlier in the Eastern and Pacific time zones than its U.S. scheduling.
Reception
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that A Little Late with Lilly Singh holds a 90% critic approval rating with an average score of 6/10, based on 10 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads: "The delightful Lilly Singh breathes fresh air into the world of late-night comedy with an energetic new show that's willing to play with the format in ways that will keep viewers looking forward to staying up A Little Late." Aggregating website Metacritic reports a normalized rating of 62 out of 100, based on 4 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews. The premiere episode also attained steady ratings in comparison to the finale of Last Call. In October 2019, it was reported that the series had an average of 666,000 viewers and a 0.16 rating in adults 18-49 per episode, which were below those of Last Call from a year prior. In a positive review, Shirley Li from The Atlantic opined that while Singh's monologues came off "awkward," she excelled in interviewing the series' guests, during which she delivered "some of her best, off-the-cuff humor." Caroline Framke of Variety also gave the series a positive review and commended Singh as an "engaged interviewer capable of steering the conversation where it needs to go." In addition, the segment "Lilly Is Struggling to Date Women" was nominated for Outstanding Variety or Talk Show Episode at the 31st GLAAD Media Awards.
