TVSquad

Lopez Tonight, George Lopez's new late night show on TBS, premieres this Monday at 11 p.m. His first guests will be Eva Longoria Parker, Ellen DeGenres, and Kobe Bryant. A bunch of other celebs are part of the video below, wishing Lopez luck on his late night talk show adventure.

Each celebrity was paid $10 for their shout-outs to Lopez. Just kidding!

The daytime segment of cable's first day concluded with four Turner-related panels: Joy Behar on her new HLN talk show; a CNN panel with John King, Christiance Amanpour, and Soledad O'Brien; a panel with Jerry Bruckheimer and the cast and producers of TNT's Dark Blue; and George Lopez, who is starting a new late night talk show on TBS.

Behar and Lopez bookended the session, and they were an interesting contrast. Two comedians, both opinionated, both with things to say about current events. But while Behar's gentle jabs played to mostly silence among the cranky writers in attendance, Lopez got more than a few of us to laugh. I've never been the biggest Lopez fan, but I have to admit, he was ready for us: he made most of us stand up to talk to him, he jostled us on our reluctance to be enthusiastic, and he was able to make pretty quick comebacks with ease. Must be the years of dealing with hecklers.

Anyway, after the jump, some details of Turner's day in Pasadena, including audio of an interview with O'Brien that I started with the word "cankles."

With all this news from ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and The CW about their new fall schedules, we can't forget what's happening on cable. TNT and TBS have announced some new shows of their own. Some might say that these shows are even more promising than what the other networks have to offer this fall. In fact, one of them has me more excited than Richard Simmons in a tank top factory.

Besides returning shows like The Closer (June 8), Raising The Bar (June 8), Saving Grace (June 16), and Leverage (July 15), TNT also has the following new shows.

Andy Warhol's comment about everyone getting fifteen minutes of fame has apparently morphed into everyone getting fifteen minutes as a talk show host. George Lopez is the latest, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Lopez will start a 34-week test run in November on TBS, in the 11 p.m., Monday through Thursday timeslot.

Lopez seems like a personable guy, and if his ABC sitcom was any indication, he should have a pretty good mainstream appeal. But this will be an experiment for Lopez and TBS. The network has only dabbled in late night programming, and many a comedian and comic actor (Joan Rivers, Chevy Chase, Dennis Miller) have found late night talk shows to be a quagmire. The success of the show may depend on how much leeway Lopez has for trial and error (a la Conan, who hit a great stride after a rough start).

I'm not sure if the world needs another talk show (though if Amy Sedaris were to host one I'd watch it, and I like Bonnie Hunt's show), but we're getting one: TBS has just signed George Lopez to host a late night show on the network.

The show (no title yet) will air Monday through Thursday at 11pm, and is described by Turner Entertainment President Steve Koonin as "an outdoor street party." Koonin also says that the show won't just be Lopez behind a desk "interviewing other old people." I'm sure it will please Lopez to be thought of as "old." He also says it's going to be more like Arsenio Hall's show, with live music, comedy acts and musical guests. Yeah, because that's what's missing on Letterman and Leno and Kimmel, live music, comedy acts, and musical guests. If he has a band, then it will truly be groundbreaking television. But I really liked Lopez's sitcom, so more power to him.

The show premieres in November.

If you watch a lot of TV like I do, you often go through patterns. You'll drift away from a show for many months or even years, and then you start watching an episode one night and find yourself watching the show on a regular basis again (I'm talking about watching the shows on TV, not DVD). Here are a list of shows that I've found myself watching again recently, usually at 1 in the morning when I should be in bed.

1. Home Improvement. What a good show this was, and the type of show you don't see much of anymore, a sitcom shot on video in front of a live audience (most filmed-before-a-live-audience sitcoms today, like Gary Unmarried and Old Christine, have that film look). I think a lot of people dismiss this show because it was about a guy who was more into cars and tools than reading and emotion, but the show was a lot deeper than that.

Recently, The Onion had a really funny article called "Nation Suddenly Feels Old After Seeing Nick-At-Nite Lineup" (funniest line: "Why are they playing shows from 1988? That's only...fuck, that's 19 years ago? Oh God, I've wasted my life."). But it seems like even The Onion can't keep up with the rapid changes in the nostalgia network's lineup. Nick at Nite has not only rocketed past the eighties and started concentrating on sitcoms from the nineties (Home Improvement, Fresh Prince), but they've decided to start airing shows from the 2000s as well.

How do I know this? I turned on Nick at Nite last night and saw an episode of... George Lopez.

A new study at Marymount Manhattan College has concluded that real-life dads are less supportive and accepting than dads on sitcoms. Happy Father's Day!

The study went like this: a communications researcher showed episodes of various TV comedies, including The Simpsons, Everybody Loves Raymond, My Wife and Kids and George Lopez, to 108 college students and then asked them how the TV dads compared to their real-life dads. In every instance, the TV dad was better than the real dad.

Even before this morning's presentation of the 2007-08 ABC fall schedule, George Lopez knew that his show wasn't going to be on it. That's because ABC Entertainment president Steve McPherson, gave him the bad news over the weekend. Apparently, McPherson and ABC thought George Lopez was going to be a money loser if it got picked it up for another season. Lopez isn't buying it, as he told the LA Times today.

He not only told the newspaper that he should have gotten one more season to tie up some loose threads, but that his show outperformed other shows, like Notes from the Underbelly, that got renewed. "TV just became really, really white again," he told the Times.

• At 8, ABC has a new, one-hour George Lopez, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then a new episode of The Unit.
• NBC has new episodes of Dateline, Law and Order: CI and Law and Order: SVU.
• FOX has a new American Idol at 8, then a new House.
• The CW has a new Gilmore Girls at 8, then a new Veronica Mars.
• There's a new Nova on PBS at 8, followed by a new Frontline.
• At 9, A&E has a new Dog The Bounty Hunter.
• At 9:30, Food Network has a new Road Tasted.
• At 10, FX has a new episode of The Shield.
• TLC has a new Miami Ink at 10.
• Bravo has a new Work Out at 10.
• Also at 10: Spike has a new ECW.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Back in January, comedian George Lopez went on WOMX and told hosts Scott and Eric that Jay Leno is "the biggest two-faced dude on TV," "one of the worst interviewers on TV," and a "backstabber." So when Leno saw Lopez at The Laugh Factory's salute to Richard Jeni (who committed suicide earlier this year), he wanted to bury the hatchet with him. The two started talking, and Leno wanted to find out why he said those things.

One problem: it wasn't George Lopez, it was Paul Rodriguez!

As if that's not embarrassing enough (Leno has known Rodriguez for 30 years!), but Leno's explanations were lame too. First he said he didn't have his contacts in, and then he said he was confused because he was upset over Jeni's death.

Ouch.

• At 8, CBS has a new NCIS, followed by a new episode of The Unit.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 8, then new episodes of Law and Order: CI and Law and Order: SVU.
• There's a new American Idol on FOX at 8, then a new House.
• The CW has new episodes of Gilmore Girls and Veronica Mars.
• TNT has coverage of the NBA playoffs at 8.
• At 8:30, ABC has a new George Lopez, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal.
• At 9, Larry King Week continues on CNN with guest Oprah Winfrey.
• A&E has a new Dog The Bounty Hunter at 9.
• At 10, TLC has a new Miami Ink.
• FX has a new ep of The Shield at 10.
• Sci-Fi has a new ECW at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Work Out.

Check your local TV listings for more.

(S04E11) ABC brought George Lopez back out of mothballs this week, so there was no 8:00 recap show. Instead, Tom and Samantha ran through the performances quickly at the beginning of the show. The best part of that was seeing Ian's reaction to the judge's comments last night. Much like many of the readers here, Ian didn't really understand where they were coming from.

It's a good point, and something that seems to happen every season. For whatever reason, the judges get a burr under their saddle and just go after one of the better contestants, while soft-pedaling some of the lesser routines. His best course of action is to move along and know that he's in good company.

• At 8, ABC has two new episodes of George Lopez, followed by new episodes of Dancing with the Stars and Boston Legal.
• CBS has a new NCIS at 8, then a new The Unit.
• NBC has a new Dateline at 8.
• There's a new American Idol on FOX at 8, then a new House.
• PBS has a new Nova at 8, followed by a new Frontline.
• The CW has new episodes of Gilmore Girls and Pussycat Dolls Present.
• At 10, TLC has a new Miami Ink.
• Food Network has a new Rachael Ray's Tasty Travels at 10.
• Sci-Fi has a new ECW at 10.
• FX has a new ep of The Shield at 10.
• Also at 10: Bravo has a new Work Out.

Check your local TV listings for more.

Here are the new TV DVDs, in stores tomorrow.

• America's Funniest Home Videos - Motherhood Madness
• George Lopez - Season 1 and Season 2
• Ghostbusters - Complete Series
• Happy Days - Season 2
• Highlander - Best of the Best
• Larry King Live - Greatest Interviews
• The Larry Sanders Show - Not Just The Best of The Larry Sanders Show
• Laverne & Shirley - Season 2
• Masters of Horror - Family
• Mork & Mindy - Season 2
• Murder, She Wrote - Season 6
• SpongeBob SquarePants - Friend or Foe
• The Venture Bros. - Season 2