Larry Wilmore got to have his say during his final night on Comedy Central.

“As a culture, we’ve all agreed with the opinion that the world should be seen in a certain way. So at ‘The Nightly Show,’ our chief mission was to disagree with that premise, and to see the world in a way that may not make everybody comfortable,” he said during the final telecast of The Nightly Show. “And to present it with a cast of people who don’t always get to have a voice on that. On that front, I feel we’ve been very successful, and I couldn’t be prouder of what we accomplished.”

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In a move that perhaps could have helped the show’s ratings had it happened more early and more often, Jon Stewart, an executive producer on the program, made an appearance midway through.

“Your last show? On my God — what did you piss off Peter Thiel?” Stewart joked, typically hewing close to current pop culture with his reference to the Silicon Valley billionaire’s recent takedown of snarky culture blog Gawker.

On a more serious note, Stewart said: “Do not confuse cancellation with failure.”

Wilmore did not seem bowed. In the show’s final seconds, after he had thanked everyone involved, he said: “I’m not done yet.”

The Nightly Show debuted on Comedy Central in February 2015, replacing The Colbert Report with Stephen Colbert at 11:30 p.m. ET/PT, after Colbert went to CBS to replace David Letterman on The Late Show.

Comedy Central’s decision to end The Nightly Show is representative of larger problems at the network, which has seen its ratings plunge nearly 40% among its key young adult demographics since the departure of The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, Colbert and others. The Nightly Show never took over Colbert’s mantle though, averaging only a paltry 0.2 among adults 18-49.

READ MORE: Variety

[Image courtesy of Comedy Central via The New York Times]

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