George Lopez — Tonight!

I feel like this is the year for late night changes. Leno moves to primetime. Fallon gets his own show. Conan movies. And now, George Lopez is premiering a new late night show on TBS tonight at 11:00.

It kind-of snuck up on me. Sure, I did receive a press kit a few weeks ago (which included a mini water cooler that keeps me company at work), but for some reason, it just seemed far away. But you know, it isn’t the press kit that’s making me curious about the show. It’s actually the show itself and the landscape at which it’s presenting itself.

Let’s face it. Late night and talk shows are getting to be different. We’ve got new hosts and we’ve got new times. The Leno experiment is just a disaster, no matter how you spin it. Introducing another player–and another network–to the late night game just kinda makes me wonder what’s next. Or at least what made TBS start it. I guess that brings me to George himself.

I think this little excerpt from his recent conference call pretty much sums up his show, so I’ll share it here. I really like his attitude.

So TBS now in getting into the late night business has chosen me who appears to be fearless for all intents and purposes. I have nothing to prove to anybody other than I believe in myself that I can create a talk show that makes network look like they’re standing still.

Now how am I going to do that? First of all, I’m on cable. Language may be a little bit more liberal with language, with content, within intent. Somebody who’s not afraid to throw a punch and directly hit a target…

Without going into too much detail, you can see already that the show’s got his own flair and that he’s taking chances. I’d be willing to try that out.

Now, another aspect of the “premise,” so to speak, still makes me a little nervous. Supposedly, he wants every episode to be kinda different. It should feel like a party, or a club, as he said in the call. And while I think this could be a lot of fun, I wonder if it will either a) not live up to expectations or b) have a lack of consistency leading to a less-than-cohesive show. I guess we’ll see.

But I have high hopes. For one thing, he seems very in tune with what’s “new.” For example, the music. Here’s a quick quote that he shared in the same call about the music of the show, which I think is great:

…I do want to make sure that the music is representative of everything that’s happening, not just everything that’s happening to me.

So bands who–like Kings of Leon or bands that are starting out–that are on the cusp, that are already younger…you know, I don’t want to be Carson Daly but I admire that of breaking bands.

I know this seems like a minor point, but I like the idea that he’ll give the chance to some of the younger performers. We’ve seen Miley Cyrus enough. Let someone new take the stage!

Plus, when he claims that one of his influences is Arsenio Hall, you really wonder what’s coming. Add that to his heritage–the Latino flair that you know will come out–well, I think it’s got promise.

I don’t know if I’ll watch it every night (I tend to fall asleep early), but I know I’ll be checking it out tonight. It looks like it could be a fun show–and definitely a go-to show for weeknights at 11:00 (it’s on Monday through Thursday)–so I look forward to seeing how it turns out.