In preparation for the debut of The Wanda Sykes Show – which debuts tomorrow night on Fox and features guests Mary Lynn Rajskub (24), Daryl “Chill” Mitchell (Brothers) and Phil Keoghan (The Amazing Race) - the 45-year-old comedian and co-star of CBS’ The New Adventures of Old Christine talked to EW exclusively about the show’s laidback format and why Lindsay Lohan will probably never appear as a guest.
EW: How did the deal come about?
Wanda Sykes: It was a little less than a year in the making. My agent said we should talk about doing a talk show. I was like, I don’t want to do it. I was working on my special (for HBO). But with the presidential election, everything was heating up so they came to me again. I thought it’d be cool to have some kind of an outlet where I can go out and speak on things that are happening right now. And also, being a new mom (Sykes and her wife of nearly a year have 5-month-old twins) I’ll have somewhat of a normal schedule and won’t have to be on the road doing standup. So it became a little more appealing to me.
Fox hasn’t had the best success with late-night talk shows.
You don’t have to tell me. I know what can happen and it can go horribly. I’m just trying to be a little optimistic.
Can you juggle this and The New Adventures of Old Christine?
Old Christine is so well organized and we’re in our sixth season so we pretty much know what we’re doing over there. I’m doing 17 episodes this season. We have fun. In fact, this past week, things were going a little rough over at the Wanda Sykes Show so being at Old Christine is kind of nice to have to go and hide out. It’s like my little cave.
Will you do a monologue? Will there be guests?
Yeah and there will be guests. I’m gonna have panel guests so it’s more laid back. I don’t want them to feel like they have to know all of American history because I don’t know that sh–. They shouldn’t have to know all the world leaders and stuff. It’s a little more like hanging out, like if you’re hanging out at my place on a Saturday night. You know, we’ll have a few drinks, we’ll talk a little politics and some pop culture.
You will be serving drinks?
Oh, hell yeah, we will definitely have quite a few drinks. That’s the only way I will do the show. You just can’t have drinks and then have guests like Mike Tyson and Lindsay Lohan. It doesn’t work. You can’t have any of the ultimate fighters all liquored up.
So what will the format be?
I’ll open the show and then I have a sidekick/buddy, Keith Robinson, who is a really is a good friend of mine. He’s also a comedian and he knows how to push my buttons. Any argument we get into Keith just takes it somewhere that’s totally wrong and just crazy.
What would be your perfect lineup of guests?
If we can start with Condoleezza Rice and then throw in a maybe a — let me think … an Andy Roddick and a Dave Chappelle.
What happens after the group discussion?
The panel stays for inappropriate games where everything goes to hell. That’s when we’ll really get in trouble.
Photo Credit: Fox
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Wanda Sykes’ HBO show was hi-larious and had me literally holding my stomach from laughing so hard. I adore her on ‘Old Christine’, too, and I’m very much looking foward to this talk show on Saturday. The ‘hanging out’ vibe sounds promising. Thanks for the interview!
I Love Wanda. I’m really interested to see if she can do this. There really anything good on saturday so I’ll be sure to watch.
oops. I meant there ISN’T anyting good on.
I don’t understand what all the fuss is about I think she’s more irritating than humorous. I’d rather watch paint dry.
I agree with you, Jane. She makes me sick.
Wow you obviously are homophobic or you just don’t know comedy when you see/ hear it.
Shane – You sound so ignorant. Just because someone doesn’t like her doesn’t mean they are homophobic. I like her too but everyone is allowed their opinon with out you slandering them!
she sucks! oops….she doesn’t…lesbian…lmao
I think this Biotch is lame ( whatever her crap that she spouts, is not funny at all APbuLEBEE’s ) she is an ass, I hope the Obama lover that she is… like him, I want them both to fail!!!!!!!!!!
Wanda sucks. Dumb, and shallow one liners makes this the perfect show for the typical viewer that did not finish the 8th grade.
Hopefully, Wanda will meet with success. I hope she and Obama succeed!
I used to like Wanda Sykes but after the first ten minutes of her talk show I will NEVER watch a show with her in it agian
I think Wanda Sykes is very funny, I have watched her since she first started on the Chris Rock show……….saw her last HBO special and laughed my a== off, can’t wait to see her new show….
I am very unhappy with Wanda’s talk show… terrible! Stupid! Unfair! Watch a littel History channel Wanda!
I think she has a good talent but the racial comedy has got to go, if the shoes were reversed and someone was making jokes about the african americans, boy somebody would be crying racist. Comedy is good but the race card got to go.
NOT FUNNY….i thought she was better than that
I don’t know what you all are talking about. I watched the entire show and it was a hoot. It was topical, politcal, and still pulled in some gay qualities. If you guys didn’t get that, watch the whole thing before you post a criticism. Could you all be dorks?
I really tried to watch Wanda’s new show. The political humor was terrible. Keep the jokes funny not mean spirited. You are supposed to make us “forget” about our problems. Instead of getting high on booze or drugs we want to get high on you! Play to your strong points you are not Bill Mahr.
Wandas show was a cross between, Richard Pryor at his current age telling a joke (incapable of making a punchline) and Saturday Night Live when Eddie Murhpy left (just something taking up airtime). Mrs. Wanda, stick to what you do best make us laugh.
She has never been funny and her voice would make her liberal lesbian lover go straight. Notice how all the failed lesbian’s keep getting new shows to force us to accept them?
What? Look at Ellen are we forced to accept her? She is amazing..and so is Wanda!!
Just awful, completely deplorable TV. Cancel it now and put us all out of our misery. Fortunately, I never have to watch it again! *click*
Wanda Sykes is a dumb racist bitch that caters to the dumb ignorant masses.
Hmm being a gay man, I dont think she is racist or caters to dumb ignorant people your ignorant for saying that..
I can take the shot at ann coulter; she can take it and probably deserves it, but the girl behind obama that they cracked on looked like she was about 15 years old. I’m not an obama supporter, but I would have been thrilled to be right behind him on stage! Wanda has some of the best one liners in the business, but you can’t support an entire TV show with that. Take a lesson from Lenny Bruce to Howard Stern; if you’re going to do “shock” you need to have a talent component as well.
Wanda Sykes can be quite funny when she’s not overly grinding the African-American agenda. Her show was dreadful, so heavy-handed and not funny, it was almost satirical. It was essentially an hour long campaign commercial for Obama which is fine if you’re a political pundit on a cable show, but this show was disguised as entertainment. It was so belabored it was hard to watch. Be a political pundit on cable that’s your game. Embarrassing REGARDLESS of political affiliation. Also, Wanda needs to get in touch with her woman card. She gets very hot over black and gay issues, but is radio silent on women issues. That’s something about her that’s always deficient and curious.
Waste of time that won’t be repeated
I was looking forward to the new show and even set my TiVo. I won’t be doing that again. I watched 10 minutes and deleted the show. NOT FUNNY AT ALL!
I love Wanda and was so excited she got a new show. I never would of thought it would suck as much as it did. It was horrible and not funny at all. I really hope they change it before they pull the plug on it. They need to remember we watch these shows to laugh….if I wanted to watch a political show I would.
Wow! I was really surprised at how very very bad this show was.
It’s amazing that someone can may Jimmy Falon look brilliant!
Her “In the tank” stuff for Obama was too much. There are entierly too many examples of things he’s not done well to defend him so much. She has damaged her credibility as a comedian by doing that. Is it because he’s a Democrat? Dark Skinned? Noone deserves Affirmative Action in Comedy.
It’s a bad sign to be jumping sharks on your first episode.
The show won’t last two months. She’s a straight up liberal covering for her Bro in office.
Wanda is an outstanding comedian and actress. Her personal life is hers and it shouldn’t be brought into the picture of her debut show. But then again, everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I enjoy watching her movies and shows. Go Wanda.