Sykes, Lopez Bring New Colors To Late-night TV

LYNN ELBER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In the blink of an eye, late-night TV is shifting from a white men's club to the start of a rainbow coalition.

Wanda Sykes' weekly Fox comedy show debuts 11 p.m. EST Saturday, followed by George Lopez's four-night-a-week talk show on TBS, starting 11 p.m. EST Monday. They join "The Mo'Nique Show" on BET.

Lopez is counting on an audience hungry for something different — as in the first Hispanic to host a nighttime talk show on a major network, cable or broadcast.

Sykes is the first black late-night host since the late 1990s, when celebrities Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Keenan Ivory Wayans tried and failed to follow in Arsenio Hall's successful 1989-94 footsteps.

"There's a huge percentage of people not watching late-night TV at all," Lopez said, figuring that the shows headlined by hosts including David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Jimmy Kimmel draw from roughly the same audience pool.

For people of color, the actor and comedian said, "I don't think a lot of their needs are met with the current talk shows. I would pull a different audience."