Image Credit: Carin Baer/FoxWith her first season finale only a week away, Wanda Sykes has yet to learn whether Fox will pick up her fledgling late-night talk show for a second year. The hour-long program — which has featured guests like Erykah Badu, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, and Lisa Kudrow — has struggled to find an audience against NBC mainstay Saturday Night Live; so far this season, Sykes has averaged 2.1 million viewers and a 0.8 rating among adults 18-49, well below SNL’s 2.9 rating and down from what Fox’s Mad TV was averaging in the time period last year (a 1.1). Her show performs admirably in the young demographics, especially teens.
Sykes may have a couple of things working in her favor as she prepares for the April 24 finale: She’s the only late-night star who boasts a prime-time profile on a competing network (though ironically, the Emmy-winning comedy in which she co-stars, The New Adventures of Old Christine, has yet learn whether it will receive a fall 2010 pickup from CBS). And given how Fox lost its bid for Conan O’Brien, Sykes represents the network’s sole late night presence, even if she just appears on Saturdays.
Unlike prime-time series, late-night talk shows are usually given time to build an audience. It took CBS’ Craig Ferguson, for instance, three years before he started beating the competition (which was O’Brien, before he transitioned to The Tonight Show). Sykes tries to offer something the other late-night hosts don’t: lively panel discussions and adult beverages.
Guests for the April 17 show will be Tom Bergeron (Dancing with the Stars), Columbus Short (Death at a Funeral), and boxer Leila Ali. Next week’s finale will feature visits from Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad) and musician Tommy Lee. The verdict on Sykes’ second season probably won’t be learned until mid-May, when Fox presents its fall lineup to advertisers in New York.
that WMZ was funny but felt that it could of been better. I say give her another year.
Spike Ferenstein was better
Wanda Sykes is damn funny. SNL – not so much.
Plus, can we please not lose the ONLY black and female presence on late night tv??
Only black maybe, but only female? What about E!’s Chelsea Handler? Did you forget about her? She’s hilarious!
Well Sykes is the only FUNNY Female presence on Late night…
I deny the existence of E! (except for the Soup).
When you’re only considering ABC / CBS / NBC / FOX she is the only female and that’s where her ratings are compared.
Mo’nique?…
You forgot Mo’Nique…her show comes on Mon-Fri at 11p.m. on BET
I deny the existence of BET. I wish we could just replace it with TV ONE.
Make this one and out and she’s absolutely awful and no longer funny. FOX…CXL this now!
Seriously. Two words: Not Funny.
I love Wanda…just not her show. I watch the show everytime it is on hoping that it will be funny and that she will find her way but it still doesn’t work for me. I hope “Old Christine” gets picked back up and Wanda can still be on that show but Fox should cancel this show ASAP
I’m with you Steve. That’s exactly how I feel about the show. I want to like it a lot more than I do. Another year may be good, but if it doesn’t get much better, it has to go.
Why the heckka heck does EW cream over SNL so much? What kind of kick backs are they getting? SNL should have died 10 years ago!
Not sure how they “cream over” it so much. I believe they were pointing out the only other competition that Wanda is failing to beat.
Her show has been hit or miss, but it has improved with the panel conversations during the first half hour. And she did nail the Tiger Woods incident right on the head after the accident.
I love Wanda. She seems to be getting more comfortable with the show–give her another season.
The show is funny, but not always funny. She deserves a little more time to “adjust”
I think Fox should give Wanda another seaon. I’ve warmed up to her show as the season progressed. The panel discussion with Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Denis Leary, and Cheryl Hines was a turning point for her show. It showed she can get big names. Mind you, she’s worked with all of them previously, but Hollywood is all about connections anyway.
Wanda Sykes is like thousands of other comics who uses punchlines we’ve all heard millions of times before. Tired old tool.
Let’s be honest, this show AND SNL are substandard.
I like her show. I watch it on Hulu. She has some funny skits, but her delivery is a little stiff. She and George Lopez need more experience as hosts.
Honestly – the first week or two, I cringed. But when I forgot to remove the show from my DVR and watched the ones that had piled up a few weeks later, I was pleasantly surprised. I think the show has gotten better and better as the season has progressed. I do find myself laughing out loud several times throughout each episode. Fox, renew it – the audience will grow as word-of-mouth spreads.
She’s very funny but the show seemed a little stiff in the beginning-just like Jimmy Fallon’s. I actually watch her show every Sat night and she has been having some good guests on lately. She deserves another season.
They should keep it on the air. It’s gotten so much better since it debuted.
I love Wanda and I’ll say to give her time.