George Lopez: No desk, no monologue, no cue cards

George Lopez appeared at the television critics' summer press tour to promote his new late night talk show, "Lopez Tonight," which will debut Nov. 13 on TBS and air Monday-Thursday. According to The Live Feed blog, Lopez "hopes to keep the format flexible, bringing audience members up to the couch, putting different guests together on stage, and sometimes opening with a guest. 'If you have Prince, why would you have him go last?' he said. 'It's supposed to be a party and a party is spontaneous.'" Lopez also screened the Barack Obama clip which had already been screened at the May upfronts (and which Talk Show News covered at the time).

Variety quotes Lopez as saying his ethnic background will serve him well in the overwhelmingly white male field of late night chat. "We have 93 million households, and we're in a beautiful position at 11 o'clock. There's an audience out there that's underserved," Lopez said. "In the continuing diversity of the country, and as people become more familiar with you, you realize it's not your father's country anymore."

Lopez plans to borrow from one of his mentors, Johnny Carson, who helped kick-start the comic's career when he appeared on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" in 1991. He said he will give air time to new comics "and plans to re-institute Carson's famous thumbs up and wave to those he invites to the couch," writes the L.A. Times' Show Tracker blog.

Yet another blog, Zap 2 News & Buzz, gave a little taste of the type of humor Lopez's audience can expect. Asked about the president, he said, "If he came to Los Angeles again with Michelle and his mother-in-law, I'd like them to stop by. Listen -- Barack Obama is of Kenyan decent, but he also has some Latino in him. I think you see the Latino -- he lives in a house that's not his, that's very Latino. His mother-in-law lives with him, helping raise his two kids. He's one of us! He's a man for all people. And yes -- I would say that if they came to Los Angeles and didn't come on the show, I would personally be offended."