Larry Wilmore's The Nightly Show is ending its run on Comedy Central less than two years after its feted premiere, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Wilmore leapt from The Daily Show's roster of contributors into a slot replacing Stephen Colbert's The Colbert Report in January 2015, and The Nightly Show was renewed for a second season last September.

"I'm saddened and surprised we won't be covering this crazy election"

Comedy Central decided to terminate that second season early because the show's performance — both in terms of traditional viewership and social spread — remained dismal. (The network's hand was forced by odd contractual timing, too: it had to make a decision whether or not to renew Wilmore and his staff in just a few weeks.) "Unfortunately, it hasn't connected with our audience in ways that we need it to," said Comedy Central president Kent Alterman to THR, "both in the linear channel... and with shareable content and on social platforms as well." The show's last episode is airing on Thursday night, and it'll be replaced by Chris Hardwick's game show @midnight until Comedy Central finds a permanent replacement.

Wilmore addressed the cancelation with typical frankness in a statement to THR. "I'm really grateful to Comedy Central, Jon Stewart, and our fans to have had this opportunity, but I'm also saddened and surprised we won't be covering this crazy election, or 'The Unblackening' as we've coined it. And keeping it 100, I guess I hadn't counted on 'The Unblackening' happening to my time slot as well." The Nightly Show may be axed, but Wilmore still has plenty on his plate: he's an executive producer of both ABC's Black-ish and Issa Rae's upcoming HBO comedy Insecure.