The three new late-night talkers are people of color - in terms of ethnic and racial identity, as well as in terms of personality. Taken together, Fox’s “The Wanda Sykes Show,’’ TBS’s “Lopez Tonight,’’ and BET’s “The Mo’Nique Show’’ represent a new step in late-night talk, a realm so famously crowded with unerringly cool, straight white men, from Jack Paar and Johnny Carson to Jimmy Fallon and Jon Stewart. Or at least they further the step initiated by “The Arsenio Hall Show,’’ which aired on Fox from 1989-1994. Along with Chelsea Handler’s “Chelsea Lately’’ on E!, the three new late shows stand for the kind of diversity that has already reached daytime and prime time TV, not to mention the Oval Office.
Lopez didn’t let the moment pass unnoticed during his first show on Monday night. Addressing his standing audience, which we knew via the many camera close-ups was composed of different colored faces, he announced that he was “bringing change to late-night TV.’’ Amid loud cheers, he said: “This is what America looks like. It’s young, it is old, is it black, it is white, it is Asian, it is Latino.’’ In a cameo to deliver her well wishes, Ellen DeGeneres was also diversity-conscious, saying, “Everybody needs to be represented on television.’’
But despite all the cultural significance, the success of each of these new shows will come down to the host and his or her connection to viewers. Lopez has a full-throated energy and a weakness for sophomoric guy humor that can be grating, especially since his show will air Monday through Thursday nights. Hoarse, but still yelling, he fills his opening monologues with too-familiar material about short people, marital sex, and flatulence. His interviews, with the likes of Eva Longoria Parker, Kobe Bryant, and Jamie Foxx, are too filled with praise and plugs to be genuinely engaging.
