A Little Late With Lilly Singh Halts | Big Blow To Diversity Or Did The Comedian Just Go Wrong

NBC's late-night show, A Little Late With Lilly Singh will be coming to an end after its second season. A report on Deadline called the move a 'blow to diversity of late-night television as Singh is the only woman hosting a show on a broadcast network'. But did they call it quits because of Lilly's race and gender? Or did Lilly had too much pressure on her that barred her from being creative?

The rise of Lilly Singh

Let's start from the very beginning when Lilly Singh had become the internet's famous woman. In the years 2013, 2014, Lilly Singh had been at the peak of her career. She made low budget videos where she impersonated, an Indian mother, an Indian father, an Indian brother living abroad.

In her short fun-filled video she essayed the emotional turmoils of an Indian girl, struggling with cultural identity. Brown people across the globe had quickly made her popular. She witnessed impressive growth with her short sketches. 

Various stars such as Priyanka Chopra, Nick Jonas, Dwayne Johnson, Selena Gomez, All India Bakchod, would share the screen with her on her YouTube channels. She called herself the 'Superwoman' and in the year 2016, Forbes had listed her as one of the highest-paid YouTubers. 

In the year 2018, she witnessed a steady decline in her number of followers. When Forbes did not list her in the Highest Paid category of YouTubers she went on to express her unhappiness on social media, but it had been taken in with a slight amount of toxicity. 

"2 years ago it was almost even between male & female, last year it was just me and this year there are no females at all. Something I predicted in my Instagram caption last year. I'm concerned the digital space is going to repeat the mistakes of ancient industries. Hope I'm wrong," Lilly tweeted first. 

"I tweeted about seeing no women on the YouTubers Forbes list and as a result, I received some angry tweets from men. Remind me why YOU are mad again? I'm not playing a "gender card" I am literally stating facts about results in an article. Let's do better. I'm not your enemy," she clarified later. 

Not everything is about equal representation. If women want to be in the highest-paid list of YouTubers, they need to learn the language of the internet, produce content, take part in the race of viewership and earn their position in the Forbes rich list. Just like Lilly had achieved it for herself in the years 2013, 14. Expecting the world to serve you, give you money, make space for you, only for being a woman, shows a sense of 'entitlement', and is equally toxic when it comes from women. 

Lilly was clearly unhappy that her position as the once top YouTuber star had slipped away without her notice. The YouTube landscape had changed and Lilly failed to keep in touch with the new algorithms. Also, even in 2020, Lilly's content remained the same. 

The brown mother, had her head covered with a dupatta the father suffered from an enormous quirky guy syndrome. Indian parents being constantly critical about their children's decisions may have been fun comic content in 2013, but times had changed and most of what Lilly had to say in 2020 became outdated. Desi parents of the 90s were not the same as desi parents of 2020, 2021. That's why her new audience failed to connect with Lilly's new materials. 

Take a look at Lilly Singh's real-life parents: 

Now take a look at how Lilly's exaggerated version of her parents :

With the advent of globalisation, Indian parents have evolved. Right now, her acts are perpetuating stereotypes and that is another level of problem. 

 Late Night with Lilly Singh

In every circle, you have that one companion, who clings on another famous friend, relative to attain some validation on social media. Lilly Singh had gained publicity even before Vice President Kamala Harris had become the first woman American leader to hold that position. Why then did she perpetually lean on her fame, to promote her show? 

Someone needed to assure Lilly that with or without Kamala Harris she will remain famous and there wasn't a constant need to impersonate her on the show.  The US elections are over, Lilly played a vital role in promoting her, she won, and now she will remain in position till 2024. Congratulations to her, you and now it's vital that we move on. 

What went wrong? 

In the year 2020, she released a vlog where she had described that there is an intense recording schedule. Due to a limited budget, she had to shoot 96 episodes within a span of three months. That is immense pressure on any creative person, writers, presenters, cinematographers, costume designers and everyone else involved in the show.  That creatively barred her team from preserving her quality of work.

Her writers were unable to draw jokes on the social, political situations in the country since they had no materials from where they can draw inspiration. It was the point where they had to meet the deadline and thereby submitted any material that occurred in their blocked heads. 

When Lilly had first stepped in as a YouTuber, she was willing to experiment, learn. She tried a couple of different things and made her unbiased comments of white and brown culture. With her show, she has given herself a new career that has come without any inspiration.