NEW YORK, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- With less than a week until the inaugural airing of The Nightly Show, host Larry Wilmore knows he has big shoes to fill by taking over the time slot that made Stephen Colbert a household name.
"I'm developing my own thing and hoping people will come to the party," Wilmore told Rolling Stone.
"Replacing Stephen is impossible."
Wilmore, most known as the "senior black correspondent" on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, has been working in comedy since the 1980s, with writing or producing credits on In Living Color, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, The PJs, The Bernie Mac Show and The Office, among other projects.
In 2012, Wilmore produced and starred in Larry Wilmore's Race, Religion and Sex, a recurring traveling comedy town hall-style comedy special for Showtime. The premium cable network declined to pick the show up as a regular series, dealing a blow to what Wilmore saw at the time as his fading chance to host his own show.
"The producer in me said, 'You know, Larry, there's a window of time when people tend to get these jobs, and that window may have closed,'" Wilmore described to The Wall Street Journal.
But two years later CBS tapped Colbert to replace David Letterman on Late Night, prompting Jon Stewart to push for Wilmore's turn in the spotlight. Now, Wilmore says, he's just counting down the days.
"I'm drawing X's on my wall like a prisoner. It's a combination of anticipation, panic dreams and just laughing about it, because there's nothing I can do right now. Jon Stewart tells me I have no idea what I'm in for."
