Larry Wilmore finally gets his own show with Comedy Central's 'The Nightly Show'

Larry Wilmore has some big shoes to fill, but if anyone can easily slide into the slot once held by Stephen Colbert, it’s the Daily Show’s “senior black correspondent.” The comedian’s own show, The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore stars tonight, following Jon Stewart.

Wilmore got the job in May and he’s had enough time to prepare for tonight’s show.

Wilmore will bring a different flavor to the 11:30 p.m. slot, after Stewart’s “Moment of Zen.” Wired reports that he will feature debates between real people. He even turned Colbert’s one-man desk into a five-person desk. Still, there will definitely be comedy every night. It is on Comedy Central, after all.

“We’re just keeping it a hundred,” Wilmore told Wired. “That’s ‘keeping it one hundred percent real,’ for people who don’t know. Rory didn’t know what it meant for months.”

The show was originally called The Minority Report, but since Fox wants to do a show based on the Tom Cruise movie of the same name, Comedy Central changed it. However, that change was probably for the better.

“It was never intended to be a show only about minorities,” Wilmore told the New York Times. “It’s a show about underdogs, and that happens in a lot of different forms, whether it’s race, gender, or whatever.”

The first guests for The Nightly Show include John Leguizamo, Jon Lovett, How To Be Black writer Baratunde Thurston and Talib Kweli.

The Night Show premieres at 11:30 p.m. after The Daily Show.

image of Larry Wilmore with ‘Black-ish’ creator Kenya Barris courtesy of Peter West/ACE/INFphoto.com