How Did Larry Wilmore Lose Over Half the Audience He Inherited? Let Us Count the Ways…

“Funny is the world I live in. If you’re funny, I’m interested. If you’re not funny, I’m not interested” – Jerry Seinfeld

And when applying this simple rule as a gauge when evaluating the performance of The Nightly Show after celebrating one year on the job this month, the verdict is in on Larry Wilmore:

He’s not funny.

And… pretty much no one is interested.

But don’t take my word for it, talk to my friend Nielsen, who says the 55-year-old Wilmore is down an appropriate 55 percent from The Colbert Report’s average audience in 2014, Stephen’s last full year on the job. For those mathematically challenged trying to score at home, that means Wilmore has lost more than half of the audience he inherited in a scant 12 months. Not sure if that’s some kind of record, but it oughta be.

In watching the Los Angeles native’s offering over the past year, there’s one consistent, glaring reality that comes across almost every episode: The host is not only a hopeless ideologue, that’s expected given the Comedy Central brand, but worse… he’s a humorless one. It’s almost as if he’d be better off on radio doing some kind of equally-grumpy version of the Mark Levin Show, but for the left. And his obsession with race ends up leading to jokes — which come across more like commentary without a punchline, but more F-bombs — that result is any comedians’ worst nightmare: Being utterly predictable. All of that said, Wilmore will somehow be headlining this year’s White House Correspondents Dinner, which shows just how much the event has fallen off in recent years.

Hopefully when that big night for him comes in April, the former Daily Show correspondent will try a different approach than the ugly, unfunny swamp he entered Monday when doing a panel segment analyzing if Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz are truly Hispanic. As a guy whose relatives (Dad’s side) once came here via Cuba, hopefully that allows me to speak somewhat intelligently on this topic.

Included in this exercise was panelist Jose Antonio Vargas, a one-time (correction: and still) illegal/undocumented immigrant who openly flaunted said status while many news producers breathlessly booked him seemingly every chance they could, casting him as some kind of hero in the process. Vargas’ message was/is the Nickelback of expert guest analysis (See: repetitive): America immigration laws are crap. He’s proof that illegals shouldn’t need to wait through the inconvenient and annoying process of entering the country legally, and anyone who questions this perspective is clearly racist, insensitive and likely a Republican. The MTV host of the deplorable White People also argues time and again that workers inside the U.S. illegally contribute to the tax base. Then… whoops… it was discovered last August that Vargas owed nearly $42,000 in back taxes in 2010 (he eventually paid it off five years later). Hypocrite. Phony. And someone who still gets ample airtime to lecture anyone stupid enough to listen thanks to Viacom, which owns MTV and Comedy Central.

Anyway, getting back to the segment in question, here’s the dialogue disguised as comedy these days on The Nightly Show per Mediaite’s Alex Griswold on Tuesday:

“Why do you think Cruz and Rubio don’t really embrace their Hispanic heritage?” host Larry Wilmore asked.

“Whoa! They’re Hispanic?” joked Nickelodeon host Jordan Carlos.

Wilmore asked if they only used their Hispanic identity when convenient. “That’s what will what they do, they use it when it’s convenient,” agreed contributor Grace Parra.

“To me, it’s really upsetting especially when it comes to the issue of bilingualism because Rubio speaks perfect Spanish,” she continued. “Because Rubio speaks perfect Spanish and he never chooses to pull it out.”

“I think race is important to talk about when talking about this because it feels like, in an attempt to get rich, white voters,” Parra said, which journalist Jose Antonio Vargas enthusiastically agreed with.

Wow. That’s an impressive range of opinions. Deep policy stuff too (since comedy clearly isn’t the goal). Of course, this comes from the host who told the New York Times the following when it comes to how he decides on a candidate:

“I’m a big fan of Obama. But I didn’t vote for his policy, I voted for him because he’s black. The policy I agree with is the policy that he’s black.” In other words, guys like Cruz and Rubio should not be defined by accomplishment, experience or worldview, but by their race/ethnicity. It’s enough to make your hair hurt.

When TV historians look back on the history of Comedy Central, its apex will surely be seen as 2005-2015. The primary reasons outside of the venerable South Park are, of course, the back-to-back presence of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. Because when juxtaposing their respective brands, what they brought to the table, it was far, far more shrewd, intelligent and, yes, funny, than the one-note tune Wilmore croons to his dwindling audience. And between Trevor Noah, who clearly is going through growing pains around timing and distinguishing himself, and Wilmore for the aforementioned reasons, Comedy Central should be embarrassed of its two biggest hiring decisions since Stewart retired from his show and Colbert left for bigger things at CBS in replacing Letterman.

Because remember, in terms of material for political satire, we are at another apex from a comedy-gold-perspective not seen since the three months Sarah Palin burst onto the scene leading up to the 2008 election. And if The Daily or Nightly Show can’t build an audience now in this target-rich environment, they never, ever will.

Larry Wilmore somehow got the nod to MC the White House Correspondents Dinner. Apparently funny isn’t the world the organizers live in.

And if losing over half an audience means anything, that White House gig may well serve as Mr. Wilmore’s apex as well…

>>Follow Joe Concha on Twitter @JoeConchaTV

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.