News

The wind of change is blowing through late-night talk television.

What once seemed the exclusive domain of old white men sitting behind desks is suddenly more diverse with the arrival of The Wanda Sykes Show (Saturday, Fox at 11 p.m.) and Lopez Tonight (Monday, TBS and TLN at 10 p.m.), new shows hosted by a black gay woman and a Mexican-American man, respectively. Had this happened in 1979 – which is highly unlikely – Johnny Carson would have probably gone for the obvious punchline: There goes the neighbourhood.

Of course, America has undergone a few changes since the heyday of Carson's The Tonight Show . Those corny Carnac the Magnificent routines would be woefully out of place today; for that matter, even Arsenio Hall, whose syndicated show began in 1989, now seems painfully dated.

Along with the recent addition of The Mo'Nique Show – BET's nightly talker showcasing the plus-sized African-American comedian – the new talk-fests hosted by Sykes and George Lopez are simply representative of U.S. society, and of the efforts of lower-tier broadcasters to capitalize on those expanding demographics.

Working in their favour is also the current late-night landscape. NBC's decision to shift Jay Leno to prime time was a bold idea that now is dying slowly on the vine. The Late Show with David Letterman weathered last month's sex semi-scandal, but it's unlikely the host garnered any new female fans in the process (the median age of a Letterman viewer, according to the U.S. Nielsen company, is 57).

And Conan O'Brien? Why, in only four months, the red-haired upstart has managed to shed nearly half the viewing audience held by The Tonight Show under Leno. Earlier this week Leno told Broadcasting & Cable magazine that he'd gladly return to The Tonight Show chair, should NBC come calling.

All of which heightens interest in Sykes. Fox's plan is to test her show on Saturday night, with hopes of rolling it out weeknights next year. Best known for her raucous standup act and regular support roles on The New Adventures of Old Christine and HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm , Sykes comes to the talk-show arena as a complete neophyte, which she sees as an advantage.

“This is all really new to me, so my plan is to stick to keeping it real,” said Sykes at the recent TV critics tour in Los Angeles. “I'm a woman with a point of view. I've always tried to keep it honest, but from the humour perspective. I always put funny first. I just happen to have boobs.”

She also comes with a loose-cannon reputation. The mother of eight-month-old twins with her partner Alex, Sykes has been oft-quoted as saying, “I'm proud to be a woman, I'm proud to be a black woman, and I'm proud to be gay.” She once sparred on live TV with Bill Cosby at the 2003 Emmy Awards. In her trademark sassy, street-talking style, Sykes asked the comedy legend if The Cosby Show was all scripted. He responded with an icy, “Yes, we spoke English.”

In her 2004 bestseller Yeah, I Said It , Sykes cut loose on sex, war, homeland security and race. Perhaps most famously, she was chosen as the entertainer at last spring's White House Correspondents Dinner – the first black lesbian to receive the honour – and stirred up trouble by likening ultra-conservative Rush Limbaugh to Osama bin Laden. “I think maybe Rush was the 20th hijacker,” cracked Sykes, “but he was so strung out on Oxycontin, he missed his flight.”

Although she's a registered Democrat and a vocal Obama supporter, Sykes insists her political affiliations will not be evident on the talk show. “If Dick Cheney puts out a hip-hop album, we're booking him,” she said.

In the rough game plan, Sykes will open each show by riffing on the week's biggest news stories, with side comments provided from a panel of comedians yet to be named, followed by the requisite celebrity interview. The format resembles a laidback after-hours lounge and the presence of an open bar on the set could be a recipe for interesting television, or disaster.

“How can I possibly get into trouble, especially on Fox?” laughed Sykes. “If anybody says anything really bad, they can always bleep it out. I wouldn't be doing it if they put restrictions on what's said. Nothing is off limits.”

By contrast, Lopez's Monday-to-Thursday talk show looks to be more structured and directed toward a younger demographic ( Lopez Tonight follows TBS's nightly broadcast of Family Guy reruns four nights a week). If Lopez seems like an unknown quantity, keep in mind that the veteran comic's previous series, The George Lopez Show , ran for five seasons on ABC until 2007. This time, though, Lopez has called in some big-name markers: One of the first guests is President Barack Obama.

“Listen, Barack Obama is Kenyan descent, but he also has some Latino in him,” said Lopez on the TV tour. “He lives in a house that is not his – that's very Latino. His mother-in-law lives with him, that's very Latino. He's one of us.”

As on his sitcom and in his standup act, Lopez will unfailingly play off his lineage in each outing of the new show. And with an estimated 43 million Latino citizens in the U.S., Lopez Tonight has potential to be a sleeper hit, even airing directly opposite The Daily Show with Jon Stewart in most markets. The real competition: “In some parts of the country, I'll be up against telenovelas,” said Lopez. “I don't think I can win that battle.”