Sad to see the lights being turned out so soon for The Nightly Show

Many of us were taken by surprise yesterday, as word got out that Comedy Central had abruptly decided to cancel The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore, making this week the last one for the late night series.

The network claimed that low ratings and lack of social media presence are the reasons for this but I have my doubts about that. Only a few months ago, Wilmore introduced POTUS at the White House Correspondence Dinner, a major honor that did make headlines.I think you have to be pretty well known to be chosen for such an event there.

 I also find it hard to believe that given all of the coverage that the show did on the election and especially Trump(in a segment known as "The UnBlackening") that TNS didn't have numerous fans or social media status.

However, what's done is done and here is my tribute to some of the best moments on TNS(granted, these clips might not be around for long but I did want to say goodbye somehow):

COSBY RAP: TNS and Larry Wilmore in particular took on Bill Cosby's repeated denials of wrongdoing as the charges of sexual assault against women grew into the double digits.

When at last a deposition was released that had Cosby admitting his free and easy use of Quaaludes for cocktail mixing, TNS regular Holly Walker chose to express her feelings about that in song. She deliberately chose a genre that he's known to hate just to add more fuel to her righteous fire:

THE Y FILES: One of my favorite correspondents on TNS is Mike Yard, who brings a down to earth tone to his hilarious rants. Some of his best bits include the mock debates on the "Pardon the Integration" skits or his most recent reoccurring sketches that poke fun at conspiracy theorists.

Called "The Y Files", Yard has had interesting takes on such topics as the NBA finals, Angry Birds and the current Pokemon Go craze, all of which do make for fine farcical fun:

HASHING IT OUT: One of the newest members of TNS roster is Franchesca Ramsey, who had a solid online presence before being part of the show. Eventually, she was granted a segment called "Hash It Out", where she took on many of the internet controversies and media nonsense going on along the tweets.

Ramsey rightly called out a good number of pompous fools such as Pierce Morgan(for his comments regarding Beyonce's Lemonade), Kayne West(for the creepy nature of his "Famous" music video) and Bill O'Reilly, who felt the need to clarify Michelle Obama's DNC speech regarding who actually built the White House. Franchesca, I am most sorry to see you go this soon but I have no doubt that you will be back on our screens sooner than expected:

DEFYING GRAVITY: Larry Wilmore has often championed science on TNS, with features about the space program and guests like Bill Nye. When rapper B.o.B insisted upon having a feud with renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, Larry gave the latter a chance to have the truly final word on that dispute, with a mike drop for good measure:

There are so many more things I could highlight, such as Grace Parra's "Nightly,Nightly!" attempts to get all Entertainment Tonight, the panel discussions, those "Keep it 100" questions. *Sigh* So many great things on this show, it's still hard to fathom why it has to be shown the door so suddenly.

Why, Comedy Central, did you have to pull the plug before November? Given all of the evolving coverage that TNS has done on the election, having Larry and friends be on hand for the end results should have been a well earned comic victory. Sure, The Daily Show will do a good job(as they have been with Trevor Noah on board) but it won't be the same without The Nightly Show by their side.

So, with that said, best wishes to Larry Wilmore and company in their future projects. We will all miss you and think of you come Election Night, where I and the rest of us hope you have the last laugh on the media madness you've managed to make sense of this year: