Why Desus & Mero still holds promise despite a slow start

Slate

Desus Nice and The Kid Mero have been on Showtime for nearly six months, yet they haven't "totally soared yet," says Nitish Pahwa, who points out tweaks Showtime made including adding an additional show per week. "Maybe it’s that it’s still not even a half-year old, finding its niche as a new type of show on a network that’s never done a late-night show before, much less one as off-the-beaten-path as this one," says Pahwa. "Maybe the sense of humor that worked so well in certain online corners was always going to have a rough time translating to bigger audiences. But the fundamental nature of the show is too valuable to change. It’s something unprecedented—the unvarnished viewpoints of two black men in America on a major network—that very much has the potential to reach an audience way beyond the typical late-night viewer, as America’s population continues to diversify and young folks of color become more involved in creative and political processes. Desus and Mero have been influential in all corners of the internet, from music pirating to blogs to digital magazines to web shows to Black Twitter to podcasts to memes. It’s safe to say that they’re the Most Online of all late-night hosts—they can see more clearly than most where the culture is coming from and where it’s going."