As "Lopez Tonight" Sails into the Ether, the Late-Night Landscape is All-White Again - Hillary Atkin

The quotbaddest show in late nightquot as host George Lopez called it is now relegated to the history booksand if there is such a thing the television business etiquette books under the chapter of quotHow Not to Fire Your Cast and CrewquotCould there have been any less respectful way for TBS to have made a major schedule change than by unceremoniously dumping George Lopez from his latenight perch with scarcely 36 hours noticeLast Thursday night August 11 was the final episode of quotLopez Tonightquot after two seasons on the cable network per an abrupt announcement on WednesdayThe comedian who hit the airwaves at 11 PM his first year graciously moved back to midnight to make way for Conan O39Brien after O39Brien was booted from NBC39s quotThe Tonight Showquotamp8212with a lot more notice and a nearly global media frenzyThe two latenight hosts made a big play of working together during TBS39 upfront presentation to advertisers and industry executives this past May in New YorkLopez wellknown for his ethnic humoryet often derided for ittermed them quotCoco and LocoquotTBS topper Steve Koonin was quoted as saying the cancellation was a business problem and that quotLopez Tonightquot was an expensive show to sustain as it lost ratings which was the ostensible reason for the bootingStill it39s highly unusual not to mention disgraceful and unprofessional that there would be so little notice given It39s not just Lopez that is losing his gig but a large numbers of staff members who work on the show including musical director Michael Bearden and the house band the Ese VatosThe network39s sparse statement distributed Wednesday morning read just this quotTBS has reached the difficult decision not to order a third season of Lopez Tonight Thursday will be the final episode of the show We are proud to have partnered with George Lopez who is an immensely talented comedian and entertainer TBS has valued its partnership with George and appreciates all of his work on behalf of the network both on and off the airquot It was attributed to simply quotTBS Spokespersonquot who apparently has no nameWe haven39t heard the last of this Critics in certain corners will be calling out Atlantabased TBS as racist and there could be breach of contract lawsuitsIn his monologue Wednesday night Lopez himself predictably joked that his ethnicity was the reason for his firingquotBig newsquot he said quotSony just announced they39re doing a sequel to The Smurfs movie so today I lost some work because I39m brown but also I got some work because I39m bluequotBut during his final outing on TBS Thursday night Lopez expressed no bitterness and was all about the love for his crew his friends Eva Longoria Slash Arsenio Hall Ron Artest and Derek Fisheramp8212all of whom appeared and his fansOf course there was some humor about the firing delivered in the guise of the character called Creepy Little White Girl who delivered increasingly bad news that Erik Estrada was being hired as the replacement that there are not a lot of jobs for Latinos on TV that a few of them involve whispering to dogs and that he was running out of show titles using his namequotThanks for reminding mequot said Lopez as the band launched into a blistering rendition of Cee Lo Green39s quotF YouquotAt the very end after ordering cameras to shoot the audience so everyone could see how inclusive it was the host could be seen with tears in his eyes as he proclaimed quotNext year in JerusalemquotWho is having the last laugh here No one at quotConanquot can be resting easy either as its ratings have also taken a nosedive And now we know TBS doesn39t give much warning when it makes major changesHillary Atkin is an awardwinning journalist who began her career as a television news writer reporter and producer at KOBTV As a broadcast producer at KCBS in Los Angeles she won numerous Emmy Associated Press and Golden Mike Awards for live coverage and entertainment special events programming and then produced and directed biographies on Robert Duvall Elizabeth Montgomery Linda Darnell and Nicolas Cage for AampampE and E She can be reached at hillaryatkinyahoocom Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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As "Lopez Tonight" Sails into the Ether, the Late-Night Landscape is All-White Again - Hillary Atkin

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