Lopez Show

( Late-Night TV Gets A Double Shot Of Diversity)

African-American comic Wanda Sykes launched her new Saturday-night talk show on Fox this past weekend, while Mexican-American comedian George Lopez premieres his weeknight program, Lopez Tonight, on TBS this week. Which means that suddenly, late-night TV is substantially more colorful.
Not only are Lopez and Sykes not white, they make a point of making jokes aimed right at their most loyal audiences. Lopez sprinkles his stand-up with Spanish; Sykes makes frequent allusions to her black family and her white wife.

They also swear a whole lot more than is usually acceptable for affable late-night hosts.

"They have to push some boundaries," says Eric Deggans, television writer for the St. Petersburg Times. Deggans says he hopes Lopez will use his new talk show to create a more diverse kind of mainstream entertainment.
But those personalities don't have the kind of broad audience Lopez and Sykes are going for. The last time late-night TV scored a diversity success was with Arsenio Hall's syndicated show. For five years in the late '80s and early '90s the comedian held a demographic that was younger and more diverse than the fans of The Tonight Show.

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But TV writer Eric Deggans says a lot has changed since Hall's show went off the air. Hip-hop has become even more mainstream, and blacks and Latinos are more visible in Hollywood. He's glad Sykes and Lopez have new shows, but, he says it remains to be seen if they are the right people to bring in new viewers.