Larry Wilmore tells Stephen Colbert his big regret about losing The Nightly Show

On Thursday's Late Show, Stephen Colbert introduced Larry Wilmore, the former host of The Nightly Show, as "my brother from another network," and he started off by asking Wilmore about losing his show. "I am very disappointed about it, I thought we'd be on through the election," Wilmore said. "We hadn't talked to them for a while, so it's almost like you're in a relationship, but you were the one who didn't know it was over."

As Colbert started moving on, Wilmore had one specific regret: "I will say this, though. I am very upset that they did cancel the brother's show when all the best worst racial stuff started happening." With Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump trading "bigot" barbs, Trump going to Mexico, and 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick sitting out the national anthem, he said, "all the best racial stuff happens now when I lose my show!" The Nightly Show was Jon Stewart's idea, Wilmore suggested. Stewart wanted to get unheard voices on the air and talk about things like race, class, and gender. "They were tough issues to do, but he felt we could do a comedy show having a discussion about the things that are hardest to talk about in this country," Wilmore said. (Comedy Central seems to have disagreed.)

Colbert asked Wilmore about "the Unblackening," his phrase for the Obamas leaving the White House. "People always ask me what did I think would be, you know, the best thing to come out of this presidency," he said. "And I think it's the example of Obama being the president, more than any policy he might have." When Wilmore was growing up, nobody thought a black man could lead a football team, he said, and now no child will ever question that a black man can lead the free world. They ended commiserating about doing the White House Correspondents' Dinner. "Those people have nuclear launch codes but they can't take a f---ing joke," Colbert said.

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Wilmore also self-deprecatingly played up his and Colbert's 11:30 p.m. Comedy Central connection in the opening. You can watch below. Peter Weber