We may still be a few months away from the new fall TV season, but it’s safe to say that Scarborough, Ont.’s Lilly Singh will definitely be the new queen of late night.
The Canadian YouTube sensation will debut her new show “A Little Late With Lilly Singh” this fall on Global, and while chatting with ET Canada’s Sangita Patel at the Corus Upfronts in Toronto, she shares why she needed a big break before she could launch her plans to change late night television.
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“I’ve processed like 50 per cent of this whole world that I’m going to dive into that’s going to be a learning process, exciting, and nerve-wracking at the same time, so I’m living through it,” Singh explains. “Honestly, I’m just living through it every single day and it’s very exciting for me.”
Although the 30-year-old says that she’s always wanted to be in the entertainment industry, she never imagined that she’d have the opportunity to host her own late night talk show.
“I always wanted my own show, I always wanted to be in movies,” she shares. “That’s what’s cool about life. When life has ways to be like, ‘you didn’t even think of that one.’ So, that’s where my life is and it’s great.”
However, with this new role comes great responsibility and Singh, who’s known online as ‘IISuperwomanII’, knew that she needed to take a break from her YouTube career. But what she didn’t know was the huge impact it would have on all of her followers.
Back in November 2018, she told her told her nearly 14.5 million subscribers that she’d be taking a step back from the social media platform.
“I just do things because it’s authentically what I’m feeling, and that’s what’s beautiful about talking about things,” she says. “You quickly realize that there are so many other people in the same boat as you and you can have this beautiful moment of connection that you otherwise couldn’t have. So, I’m trying to create more of those moments.”
Now, although Singh’s gearing up to take over Canadian screens this fall, she reveals that she wouldn’t be shaking up late night television if it wasn’t for some of her closest friends and mentors, Hasan Minhaj and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.
“Dwayne’s advice was great, he said: ‘Listen, if you want to become a late night host and then also act and also do all these other things then you will do that. Don’t feel like there’s one specific path you have to follow,’ and he gave me the example of himself,” Singh details.
“He’s really created this path that is kind of unparalleled and so he’s like, ‘Do the same thing. Don’t let people tell you you can’t do one thing and not the other.’ So, right after I hung up with him, I was like, ‘I’m going to be a late night host now!'”
Tune in to the series premiere of “A Little Late With Lilly Singh” this fall on Global.
