Lopez Tonight Highlights
TBS announced on Wednesday that they have decided not to renew Lopez Tonight. This means that Thursday night’s episode will be the last one.
I have mixed emotions about this. On the one hand, while Lopez Tonight had some entertaining moments, overall I never felt like it was a great show. For me I think it was the writing. It honestly just wasn’t that funny. The monologues were weak and the sketches were just plain bad.
On the other hand, his guest interviews were strong. Lopez was a fresh face that brought some multiculturalism to a genre hosted almost entirely by white people. His life experiences and perspectives allowed him to communicate with his guests in a way that the other hosts never will be able to. In addition, since there wasn’t a desk barrier, these segments were much more relaxed, and he did his best to make that part of his show less about interviewing and more about having a two-way conversation. I appreciated that effort.
Either way, it’s sad to see another late-night talk show canceled, and know that all of the people who worked hard to make the show run will need to find new employment in this economy.
I admire Lopez for doing the show night after night. It’s gotta be a very tough gig. He had a ton of competition and a huge-ass mountain to climb. He was only on for two years, and I think he did well considering that his show started pretty much from scratch. I’m optimistic that if he had been allowed to stay longer he would have eventually grown the show into something great. TBS, unfortunately, doesn’t want to wait that long.
I also admire him for doing last night’s show after getting the bad news earlier in the day. He was understandably very shaken and couldn’t give his standard high-energy performance. Still, he came out, was very upfront about not being renewed, did the show and made it as entertaining as he could.
– Woody
