‘Ziwe’ Fans Are Furious That Showtime Canceled The Inventive Late-Night Show After Only Two Seasons

A lot of shows are too pure for this cruel world, and so the end has come for Ziwe, the late-night talk show hosted by creator Ziwe Fumudoh. As per Deadline, there’s a bit of a shake-up going on at Showtime, which has added the Mandy Patinkin comedy series Seasoned but chosen not to renew Ziwe for a third season. And fans are pissed.

Over its two seasons, Ziwe stood out as a gleefully confrontational interviewer who could land unexpected gets, often resulting in unusual interviews. Her first episode had no less than Fran Lebowitz and Gloria Steinem. Last year she got Drew Barrymore to twerk on an episode where she and Julia Fox talked guys. Among her most attention-nabbing chats was with Chet Hanks, whose discussion of cultural appropriation went as disastrously for him as one would imagine.

The ending of Ziwe means that Showtime is no longer in the late-night chat show game. Last year they ended Desus & Mero, which once counted Fumudoh as a member of their writing staff.

Ziwe was definitely an acquired taste, but like many of its ilk, its fanbase was passionate. Upon learning that the show, whose final season wrapped only late last year, its base was rabid.

Ziwe was so big that Fumudoh wound up playing herself on Succession, in which she roasted Jeremy Strong’s Kendall Roy. Some joked that it was the ever-troubled scion who secretly did it in.

Just because Ziwe is done at Showtime doesn’t mean it won’t wind up somewhere else, as One Day at a Time did, at least for a spell.

So stay strong, fans of the Ziwe. You may hear from it again, and we don’t mean a postcard.

(Via Deadline)