NBC Taps: YouTube Star Lilly Singh to Replace Carson Daly in NBC Late-Night Slot

The broadcast network declared in February that ‘Last Call With Carson Daly’ would end after 17 years.

NBC has found its next late-night host.

Comedian and YouTube star Lilly Singh is assuming control over the 1:30 a.m. spot at currently occupied by Last Call With Carson Daly, which will make her the only woman with a late-night talk show on a broadcast network.

Her new show, A Little Late With Lilly Singh, is set to make a big debut in September. The half-hour program will highlight in-studio interviews and pre-taped comedy sketches and segments.

“An Indian-Canadian woman with her own late-night show? Now that is a dream come true,” Singh said Thursday in a release announcing the news. “I’m thrilled to bring it to life on NBC, and I hope my parents consider this to be as exciting as a grandchild.”

A taste of Singh’s satire can be found on her YouTube channel, ||Superwoman||, where she has amassed 14 million followers since she started posting videos eight years prior. The Ontario-conceived actress — who has showed up in HBO’s Fahrenheit 451 and the 2016 film Bad Moms — consistently performs sketches in character and is known for a bit where she imitates her parents, who emigrated from the Punjab area of India. The multihyphenate, who has written a book and toured with the stage show A Trip to Unicorn Island in 2015, came out as bisexual in February.

Singh, 30, announced her new series on Thursday’s installment of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. “To clarify, it’s not Jimmy’s slot,” she joked, adding, “I’m so excited because I truly get to create a show from scratch.” Singh likened the show to her YouTube channel, but said that now she’d have “more than three staff members and my sound guy won’t also be an extra and won’t also write the scripts.”

NBC declared in February that Last Call With Carson Daly would end after 17 years. The broadcaster said Daly wanted to spend more time with his family but would remain involved with the network via The Voice and Today. Former Chelsea Lately host Chelsea Handler was considered a potential candidate to replace Daly, given her recently signed first-look deal with NBC. Singh joins Fallon and Late Night host Seth Meyers on the network’s lineup. The three toasted to her role during her Tonight Show appearance Thursday (see photo, above).

“Lilly is truly a star and we’re thrilled to welcome her to our NBC family,” said Doug Vaughan, executive vp special programs and late night at NBC Entertainment. “She is a multi-talented performer who will surely have a great rapport with not only all her guests but also with our devoted late-night audience. We can’t wait to get started.”

Singh is repped by WME, Anonymous Content’s Sarah Weichel and Hansen Jacobson.