BREAKTHROUGH: Lilly Singh is NBC’s first female late-night host.
By Esther Whang, Staff Writer
Lilly Singh, a published author, renowned Youtuber, and more recently, a talk show host, debuted her new late-night show, A Little Late With Lilly Singh, on September 16, 2019. She is currently filling the slot previously held by Carson Daly. Singh is the second woman to host her own show after Samantha Bee, who hosts Full Frontal With Samantha Bee on TBS (Forbes).
Singh’s entrance into NBC will give the network the “Glory of Firsts,” as NBC THINK writer Margaret H. Willison puts it, “[NBC] now has the only late-night network show hosted by a woman, the first hosted by an openly queer person, and the first hosted by a woman of color.” The fact that Singh will be an addition to the previous middle-aged white male talk show hosts, including Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, and James Corden, makes NBC’s decision all the more significant in terms of diversity.
Before the debut of her new talk show, Singh was most commonly known as a Youtuber. Her Youtube channel, “Superwoman,” has accumulated over 14 million followers and billions of views since its debut in 2010. At first, when Singh created the channel when Youtube was still a new thing, she was skeptical. “I didn’t want to do it at first. I kept wondering if Youtube would be another Myspace — gone in five years,” Lilly Singh said (Forbes, 2017). As time passed, her number of subscribers went up and she realized her channel became a success; consequently, her mindset changed. “I thought, ‘This could be something; all these people are supporting me.’ Youtube isn’t something that can go away,” Singh said (Forbes). Singh went on to publish her New York Times bestselling book, How to Be a Bawse, extend her merchandise line, start her own production company, Unicorn Island, and even take part in movies, including Bad Moms and Ice Age.
However, the transition from filming videos for the internet to filming for television can prove as a learning experience for both Singh and NBC. In her appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s show, Singh expressed her surprise at the new things that come with switching from Youtube to television, “I come from the internet. And so things are a little bit different… I can’t say certain things… And there’s also just so many people that work on the show… I am still learning what everybody does.” As for NBC, they, according to Singh, are “learning about a female late-night host,” evoking enthusiastic cheers from the audience.
Although Singh’s new show may come across a couple bumps in the road, there’s still time to adjust and find a happy medium. One can’t expect every debut to be flawless and error-free; rather, Singh should be given time to settle in and figure herself and the show out.