Lilly Singh's new late night hosting gig makes television history

Lilly Singh’s new late night hosting gig makes television history

Lilly Singh
YouTube star Lilly Singh has made history after announcing her new gig as a late night talk show host on major network NBC.

The appointment is a huge shift in the late night television space, which has always been male dominated. The 30-year-old is set to become the only woman and LGBTQ person to host a late night show on a major network in the US.

Singh dropped the news during an appearance on The Tonight Show, when she told Jimmy Fallon A Little Late with Lilly Singh will replace Last Call with Carson Daly. 

Not only will she host the new show, she will take on the role of executive producer, alongside Polly Auritt.

The comedian has more the 14 million subscribers on YouTube and together, her videos have had more than 3 billion views since she joined the platform in 2010, giving her new show a solid pre-existing fan base.

“I’m so excited because I truly get to create the show from scratch. I get to make it inclusive. I get to create comedy segments and interview people and really create something I believe in” she told Jimmy Fallon when announcing her new gig.

“I do think it’s awesome for an Indian-Canadian woman to have a late night show.”

Singh is already an experienced celebrity interviewer, having collaborated with Seth Rogen, James Franco, Dwayne Johnson and Priyanka Chopra  on her YouTube channel.

The last time a woman hosted a late night show on a major network was over 30 years ago, when Joan Rivers hosted Fox’s The Late Show. The late night talk show space has been famously dominated by white men and when Singh’s show premiers in September, she will be the only late night host who is a woman of colour.

During her announcement, Singh gave a nod to all the women who have come before her as hosts of late night television.

“I gotta just say a huge shout out to all the women who’ve been before me and are currently in the space because I couldn’t have done it without them paving the path,” she said.

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