Lilly Singh says her NBC late-night talker A Little Late With Lilly Singh was always going to struggle, and did so well before its 2022 cancellation.
“I don’t want to say you were set up to fail. That’s too harsh,” Julie Cunningham, host of The Julie Cunningham Show podcast, told Singh as they looked back on her late night run on the Sept. 16 show.
“No, I was,” Singh quickly interjected. “I don’t think anyone intentionally was like, ‘we’re going to set her up to fail,’” added the YouTube star about her pandemic-era series that ran on NBC for two seasons until it ended.
But Singh was quick to insist “I don’t think any part of it was set up to really be successful.” Having to shoot 96 episodes in three months, and on a tight budget, was no winning formula for a late night talk show, she explained. “It was really tough. Really, really tough,” Singh recalled of producing two or three shows a day in front of a live audience.
What kept the Canadian entertainer going through a harsh shooting schedule was “a lot of crying, a lot of therapy. I just really tried my best. I knew what a big deal it was and how important it was, and I felt so much pressure to not let people down. But yeah. It was definitely, if I reflect, one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done in my life.”
While she has little appetite to do another late-night show, Singh said she’d be better prepared to do a daily talk show if the opportunity came knocking.
“If any show that’s a daily type of show would come up to me, I would be better equipped to ask better questions: Talk to me about the budget. Talk to me about the schedule. Talk to me about any contingencies, any plans. There was just so many questions I would’ve asked,” she said on the podcast.
She suggests that networks need to give any host time to find their brand, audience and voice. “I feel like another thing I would make sure happens is you got to commit to this for like five seasons. If you actually want this to be a thing, you got to give us the space to figure it out a little bit,” Singh said.
After her time on NBC‘s late night roster ended, Singh signed a first-look scripted deal with Blink49 Studios and Bell Media, the Canadian media company. The pact included a second look unscripted deal with Singh’s Unicorn Island Productions banner. She also signed a first-look producing deal with NBCUniversal’s Universal Television Alternative Studio to develop unscripted projects for that company. She currently stars in the new comedy Doin’ It, a film she co-wrote and produced.