Not too late for Larry Wilmore

PASADENA, Calif. - When Larry Wilmore takes the stage tonight as the star of Comedy Central's newest late-night show, he'll be making a difference in more ways than one. Yes, he's among the very few African-Americans to star in a category of television that continues to be overwhelmingly white.

So "irony intended," Wilmore says, when he's asked about launching on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, quipping, "I had a dream that I had a job."

But he's also a baby boomer, a 53-year-old whose debut in "The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore," on a network that's traditionally targeted men under 35, sends its own kind of message.

"I'm happy to represent that crowd," said Wilmore, in a recent interview at the Television Critics Association's winter meetings.

"Sometimes people focus, and rightly so, on the cultural or the racial - but to me, one of the best things is that part of the diversity," he said. "I get so many people, in my age group, who come up to me: 'Larry, I can't wait till you're on. I'm so excited.' And I'm, 'Yeah, I'm representin'. These are my peeps,' " he said.

Panelists on his first show will be New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, rapper Talib Kweli and comedian Bill Burr.

Wilmore, to be clear, is only a year older than Jon Stewart, the "Daily Show" anchor who tapped him to replace Stephen Colbert when "The Colbert Report" host left for CBS in the latest round of late-night musical chairs.

Stewart, though, took over "The Daily Show" in early 1999, when he was still in his 30s.

"So, the audience has that relationship with him. I'm starting now, which is different," said Wilmore. "That can be a very powerful statement, too, that our culture can value somebody starting right now, at this point." said Wilmore.

Hollywood has long valued Wilmore, a producer and comedian whose behind-the-camera résumé includes an Emmy for the pilot of "The Bernie Mac Show," which he created. He also co-created "The PJs" with Eddie Murphy and Steve Tompkins and wrote for a number of comedies, including "In Living Color."

He was working as an executive producer and showrunner on ABC's new "Black-ish" when the Comedy Central call came.

"If this hadn't come along, I'd be very happy over there, doing that," he said of the comedy, which stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross. "That was really a labor of love."

And it wasn't as if he'd been hanging around "The Daily Show," where he's frequently appeared as the show's "senior black correspondent," waiting for a time slot to open up.

"That's never been my attitude," he said. If anything, he acknowledged, he'd felt that his moment to be the star of his own series had passed.

He's not worried, though, about a generation gap with his audience.

"I've been going around to colleges the past six, seven years, lecturing and making appearances, and I have such a great relationship with those students and everything. They are interested in authentic conversations. They don't care about your age," he said, adding that a lot of the concern about age in television is due to "an outmoded marketing-scheme system."

People, he said, are "interested in an authentic conversation. Lewis Black [another "Daily Show" contributor] is a hero to young people because they feel he's being real, he's being authentic, he's telling the truth. They're interested in a certain type of experience, more than identifying with a certain generation."

Originally named "The Minority Report" - a title changed both for legal reasons and Wilmore's sense that it might limit the conversation - the show, he said, was conceived by Stewart as a place where issues of the day could be discussed, comedically and otherwise, by people who may not always get their say.

Among what Comedy Central's describing as "a diverse panel of voices" will be contributors Shenaz Treasury, Ricky Velez and Mike Yard.

The show, which will open with a segment in which he weighs in on a news story or event, will be satirical, Wilmore said, but not a clone of its lead-in, even when they touch on the same topics.

" 'The Daily Show's' cousin is the nightly news. And our cousin is the discussion news. Colbert's cousin was the opinion news."

Wilmore has run writers' rooms, "and I've created a show from nothing, just an idea, to an actual show. So, that part doesn't intimidate me," he said. "What I haven't done is really done all this for me."

What's also different: The Wilmore that viewers see tonight won't be his "Daily Show" persona.

"Stephen [Colbert] and I are doing very similar things," he said. "We're both going from being a character to being ourselves.

"He was a parody of a conservative pundit, and now he's being Stephen, the real Stephen Colbert," who starting Sept. 8 will be hosting CBS' "Late Show," following David Letterman's retirement this May. "I was the 'senior black correspondent' who commented on racial issues, and now I'm being Larry Wilmore."