When we first met the enthusiastic television personality, Tim City, he confided that he’d recently told his girlfriend, “One day I am going to be in rolling out.” City couldn’t have known how true or how soon that dream would become a reality. The popular host of “Late Night With Tim City” has been shaking up the status quo with his discussion of controversial topics — and audience members are loving it. Examining hot-button issues like homosexuality in the black community and colorism, the show’s viewing audience is rapidly expanding and tempers have been tested. We spoke with the Michigan State University alum about the program and education through entertainment. –roz edward
What’s “Late Night With Tim City” about?
We talk about everything that affects our community in Detroit. I bring light to certain issues that people may feel uncomfortable talking about, like having light skin or dark skin, or absentee fathers or homosexuality in the black community. My show provides a platform for extremes to get their voices heard. But I am not here to get the issues resolved — I bring light to them.
What discussions have drawn the most heat?
Besides the “Color of Success” when I used a brown paper bag [to determine audience seating] for light skin and dark skin [participants], the most controversial show was “Main Chick versus Mistress.” Oh my God! … Everybody’s wants to be a reality TV star, and they fall in love with “Basketball Wives” or “Love & Hip Hop.” … I had mistresses on the show and in the audience talking about the life and the benefits and there were main chicks there talking about what they had to go through. The show went left and right and people felt strongly on both sides. There are two sides to every story.
What’s next for you?
I want to see the show move to a national level. These issues that we talk about in the Detroit community are issues that people can relate to in a lot of other communities, and there are issues in some communities that we don’t know about. These are not just local issues or even just black issues. I want to reach out to Latino viewers and use the power of this platform to [effect] change.
Please visit LateNightTimCity.com for more.
