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Canwest News Service
Yikes, it's Wanda Sykes. She was a sensation at last year's White House Press Correspondents dinner. She was a comedy writer for Chris Rock, for five years. Christopher Hitchens has called her words that can't be printed in a family newspaper – or just about anywhere else, for that matter. And as of tonight, Sykes has her very own weekly late-night sketch-comedy talk show, called, wait for it, The Wanda Sykes Show.
Like Saturday Night Live, The Wanda Sykes Show is intended to be topical – if not live, exactly – and so a preview was unavailable.
Its makers insist, though, that Sykes will be unlike anything else on TV. Sykes will feature the take-no-prisoners writer and comedian giving her personal take on the week's events, along with reports from the field and comedy sketches. Nothing is off the table, evidently, whether it's to do with news, sports, race, religion, pop culture or Christopher Hitchens.
Sykes may not be like anything else you've see on TV, but some segments sound familiar. Each week, Sykes will lead a discussion panel with "regular panellists, famous friends and a whole lot of folks you wouldn't expect to find on television," which sounds an awful lot like Real Time with Bill Maher.
Then again, a little Real Time goes a long way, and Sykes is nothing if not her own person. Her first book, a collection of essays touching on life, family and mortality, was famously called Yeah, I Said It.
True, Sykes may well turn out to be a mess – it wouldn't be the first time the Fox network flopped with a late-night talk show – but one thing is clear: If nothing else, Sykes won't be dull.
"If Dick Cheney puts out a hip-hop album," Sykes told TV critics earlier this summer, "we're booking him."
There was more where that came from.
"I believe that, eventually, the cream rises to the top," Sykes replied, when asked about race and why so few visible minorities get to host their own TV shows. "Just as long as you don't keep stirring the cup." (Fox, 11 ET/PT)
Three to see
* Quick, where's Kanye? Taylor Swift – yes, that Taylor Swift – is Saturday Night Live's guest host tonight, SNL's first new live show in three weeks. Swift will pull double duty as musical guest. Kanye could put in a surprise appearance – I wouldn't put it past Lorne Michaels – or he may choose to drop in on The Wanda Sykes Show instead. Either way, it'll be real. (Global, NBC, 11:30 ET/PT)
* On a more serious note, the long-running newsmagazine W-Five examines the effects of messy divorces on those least equipped to deal with the emotional fallout: the children of wrecked marriages. (CTV, 7 ET/PT)
* Category: Famous Faces. Clue: Alex Trebek. Answer: Who is tonight's famous face on the homegrown arts program Star Portraits? Yes, it's true. Trebek is tonight's scheduled subject. The artists are Heather Cooper, Juan Martinez and Daniel Ross. (Bravo! 8 ET/5 PT)
astrachan@canwest.com
blog: www.canada.com/tvguy
