George Lopez to take a swing at late night in new TBS talker
03/24/09 10:06 AM
By ED BARK
TBS and George Lopez will enter the late night talk arena for the first time this fall in a show set to air opposite local newscasts and the first half-hours of Conan O'Brien's Tonight Show and Late Show with David Letterman.
"If change can come to the White House, then change can come to late night. Yes I can!" Lopez says in a TBS publicity release.
Still untitled, the one-hour show will air from 10 to 11 p.m. (central) on Mondays through Thursdays, beginning in November. The host also is a co-executive producer with Hollywood veteran Jim Paratore, whose credits include The Ellen DeGeneres Show and The Bonnie Hunt Show.
"George and TBS are going to change the late-night television landscape and bring a brand new energy to the talk show genre by giving it a street-party atmosphere," says TBS programming head Michael Wright.
Lopez will be the first person of color to host a late night network show since Arsenio Hall, whose syndicated hour ran from 1989 to 1994 in syndication.
O'Brien is scheduled to take over the Tonight Show on June 1st, with incumbent Jay Leno moving to a weeknight 9 p.m. hour sometime in the fall.