Comedy Central cancels 'Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore' citing failure to net young viewers

Comedy Central announced Monday that The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore will end this week, with Thursday night's episode slated to be its last.

Variety reported that the network characterized the cancellation as "a business decision."

Wilmore reportedly broke the news to his staff on Monday. The show has occupied the 30-minute slot after The Daily Show since Stephen Colbert ended The Colbert Report and moved to late nights on CBS.

Comedy Central president Kent Alterman said that Wilmore's show never caught on with young viewers, the network's core audience.

“We hold Larry in the highest esteem, personally and professionally. He brought a strong voice and point of view to the late-night landscape,” Alterman said to Variety. “Unfortunately it hasn’t resonated with our audience.”

It was, Alterman said, a “business decision” to end the show.

Wilmore released a statement Monday that said, in part, "I’m really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity. But I’m also saddened and surprised we won’t be covering this crazy election or ‘The Unblackening’ as we’ve coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn’t counted on ‘The Unblackening’ happening to my time slot as well.”