NEW YORK, March 16, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Major television channel NBC has
tapped YouTube star Lilly Singh to helm a late-night talk show, making the
Canadian the first woman to host on a US broadcast network in more than three
decades.
The evening talk shows have been a mainstay of American television for more
than half-a-century — but their hosts are generally white men.
The late comedian Joan Rivers did host her own show from 1986 to 1988 on
Fox, but that channel — unlike competitors ABC, CBS and NBC — is not known
for its late-night talk programming and no longer uses the format.
Comedian Samantha Bee also hosts her own evening satire news show entitled
“Full Frontal,” but it airs on the cable channel TBS and has a much smaller
audience than the four national broadcast networks.
Singh, 30, will take over the last of NBC’s three slots that is currently
hosted by Carson Daly and begins at 1:35 am EST.
A Canadian born to Indian parents, Singh gained fame for her YouTube
channel “Superwoman,” launched in 2010, which today boasts 14.5 million
subscribers and nearly three billion total views.
She announced her new gig as host of “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” as a
guest on NBC’s “The Tonight Show, the network’s most-watched late-night
program that’s hosted by Jimmy Fallon.
It will be “kind of like my YouTube channel,” she said, adding that “I
think it’s a little awesome for an Indian Canadian woman to be on a late-
night show.”