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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2019 | GLOBEANDMAIL.COM
O
n Oct. 15, Lilly Singh, the
Canadian YouTube sensa-
tion who’s become a late-
night TV host, bounded onto the
stage ofA Little Late with Lilly
Singh(NBC, Global) wearing one
of her trademark oversized suits –
this one mustard-coloured – and
began her monologue. “Usually I
talk about what’s on my mind,
but tonight I’m going to try some-
thing different,” she said, with her
typically bouncy energy. “I’m go-
ing to talk about what’s in the
news.”
That caught my attention.
Since beginning her hiistoric turn
onA Little Lateon Sept. 16 – histor-
ic because she’s the first bisexual
woman of colour to host a U.S.
network talk show – Singh, 31, has
declared that while she will
“show her perspective” on topics,
and “touch on social issues thatare important” to her, she won’t
do politics. (“I ain’t talking about
Donald unless his last name is
Glover,” she rapped in an early
bit.)
It’s a tricky position, because
it’s hard to separate the social is-
sues Singh purportedly cares
about (women’s rights, racial
equality, LGBTQ rights) from the
politics that do or don’t support
them. So here, a month into her
gig, was she trying out something
more risky than the breezy skate
across the surface of a subject
she’d established?Nope. “I don’t relate to the
news, I straight-up think it’s bor-
ing,” she said. “So I’m going to
make it less boring.”
The headlines she brought her
perspective to involved a $17 lux-
ury Kit Kat bar, and how the actor
Jon Cryer didn’t lose his virginity
to Demi Moore. For viewers, it was
another missed opportunity.
Obviously, NBC knew who they
were getting when they hired
Singh: a Toronto-born Sikh who
began making YouTube videos to
assuage her depression; whose
channel now has 14 million sub-scribers and three billion views,
thanks to videos such asHow Girls
Get Ready; who reportedly earned
US$10.5-million in 2017, landing
her at No. 10 on Forbes’s list of
highest-paid YouTube stars.
The network wants the youth-
ful demographic she draws and
their unclaimed disposable in-
come. Her show begins and ends
with a list of social media on
which she can be followed, and
she works that: “If you’re not fol-
lowing me yet, what are you do-
ing?”
SINGH, R5LillySingh’sALittleLateisalsoalittlelight
JOHANNA
SCHNELLER
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