Ratings: How did ‘The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore’ premiere?

While we are a big-time Larry Wilmore fan, we’ve worried for some time that his new Comedy Central series was not going to be the smash hit that “The Colbert Report” was with most Americans. After all, Wilmore is a little more low-key, and he doesn’t seem to be playing the same over-the-top character who will draw headlines in the long-term.

So how did it far in its first show? We’d say that we are, for the most part, encouraged. “The Nightly Show” received just under a million viewers, but also a 0.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic that matters very much to this particular network. This was down slightly from “The Daily Show” beforehand, but we cannot say that we are particularly surprised by this. It was the end of a long weekend for one, and many people may have gone to bed early. Also, the show’s promotional campaign really did not have a lot of time to get going due to other shows being off the air.

The real important thins is that unless the ratings fall off a cliff, we imagine that Comedy Central will be patient with the show. It can sometimes take new properties a little bit of time to find their audience, and this is especially true when you have either talk shows or late-night. The most important thing is that with Jon Stewart and “@midnight” on both sides of it, this is a show that feels like it has a great support system that is built right in.

We’ll have some other updates on the show and its numbers as it goes along, so be on the lookout for many of those.

If you missed it, head over here for our review of the “Nightly Show” premiere. Also, sign up now if you want some other great TV scoop on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Comedy Central.)