THE WANDA SYKES SHOW premiered on November 7, 2009 as part of the FOX Television Network's Saturday Night/Late Night Line-Up. Wanda Sykes' talk show was one of the new shows for the fall season,replacing the long-running comedy/variety series "MAD-tv" after 14 seasons and also replacing the dull and boring "The Spike Ferguson Show",aka "Talk With Spike Ferguson". However,Wanda Sykes is usually an able performer,both as a comedian and as an actress(from her roles on "The New Adventures of Old Christine",to "Curb Your Enthusiasm" to her own short-lived comedy series "Wanda At Large" which lasted two seasons for the FOX Network),but she still seems uncomfortable as a talk show host.
To be fair and honest,she's logged only 14 episodes since her weekly Saturday night talk show debuted on November 7, 2009,the week after the New York Yankees won Game 7 of the World Series. It is amazing to how this show has held up when FOX put her show on the same 11:00pm/EST time slot opposite NBC's powerhouse....the long-running Saturday Night Live,and it hasn't gotten any complaints yet. But its still in the developing stages so we'll what happens from here.
Getting back to Wanda Sykes' talk show format,the jokes might play well from the guest's chair or as part of a live routine which she is howling hilarious and very funny with her sharp wit and dead on humor,falls consistently flat when she speaks to the camera. What saves it is the other half of the show....she does better hanging out with guests in "Wanda's Bar",which is a Bill Maher style round table on cultural and political current events,most of it coming from Wanda's point of view.
The guest list is very diverse and plays to the fringe too...from adult film actress Jenna Jameson to Margaret Cho,Megan Mullally, to Julia Louis-Dreyfuss,Roseanne Barr,Tim Meadows,Seth MacFarlene, Alex Bornstein,Neil Patrick Harris,Tracy Morgan,Tom Arnold to rapper Snoop Dogg and many more.
