Larry Wilmore’s Colbert Replacement Show Gets New Name, Premiere Date

Apparently “The Minority Report with Larry Wilmore” was too good to be true. The show, hosted by Daily Show correspondent Larry Wilmore, is still set to replace The Colbert Report next year, but now it has a new name: The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.

Wilmore told The New York Times’ Bill Carter about the decision to change the show’s name in order to avoid any confusion with the 2002 Tom Cruise movie of the same name, which is now in development to become a TV series.

“It became complicated,” Wilmore said, explaining that legally, it would always need to be referred to in its full form, “The Minority Report With Larry Wilmore,” and could not be shortened for brevity even on social media. “The last thing you want is brand confusion,” he said.

The Nightly Show is set to premiere on January 19, 2015, following The Daily Show and will be filmed in the same studio where Stephen Colbert has shot his show for the last nine years.

“It was never intended to be a show only about minorities. It’s a show about underdogs, and that happens in a lot of different forms, whether it’s race, gender, or whatever,” Wilmore said, adding that one other title he considered was “Meet the Rest.”

[Photo via screengrab]

— —

>> Follow Matt Wilstein (@TheMattWilstein) on Twitter

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!