TCA: Fox on the Week According to Wanda
Comedian and actress Wanda Sykes gave insight into her new Saturday, late-night show The Wanda Sykes Show premiering on Fox in November during the TCA press tour Aug. 6.
Co-executive producer and head writer John Ridley and executive producer Eddie Feldmann were also on the panel.
Highlights from the panel are below:
On the shows format
Sykes: “I will be on the show, that’s what we know thus far. We will be going over the week. I’m your wrap up of what happened from the week.”
Feldmann: “The week’s really not over until you see it through Wanda’s eyes. [We’ll] really look at the week in a different way through skits…and eclectic panels.”
It will be live-to-tape as most of these shows are. We want the spontaneity of live. It’s not taped a week in advance like a sketch show.”
Ridley: “We want to have conversation…not just going from publicist talking points…in a funny and informative fashion. It’s a three-pronged attack — [Wanda herself, looking back over the week and having conversation].”
On musical acts as part of the show
Feldmann: “It’s not a regular part of show right now. Not that musical guests can’t come on and be on a panel.”
Sykes: “If Dick Cheney puts out a hip hop album, we’re booking him.”
On the variety of topics the show will address
Sykes: “We’re going to run the gamut. We’re going to go all the way from (political topics like) Bill Maher all the way to (pop culture skewering like) Chelsea Handler.”
On booking guests from Fox News
Sykes: “We’re not ruling anything out. If we come up with something that’s a funny take and it’s relevant, yeah we’ll be open to that.”
On being invited to appear on Fox News
Sykes: “I did get invited but it was something about washing windows. I’m not sure don’t quote me on that.”
On viewers being over-saturated with topic talk by Saturday night
Ridley: “Ultimately, it’s hard to say what it is but it becomes you. If we support Wanda it becomes her and nobody mistakes it for the Leno show.”
On broadcast television restrictions hindering her voice
Sykes: “I believe Fox has given us the opportunity to put it out there. They booked me to be me. ”
On her comic footprint
Sykes: “I’d like to say picking up from the comics I admire who are no longer here. I don’t think it’s anything that hasn’t been done. I’m a woman with a point of view and I tend to say things that we think but we won’t say out loud. I don’t think it’s inappropriate. Maybe it’s just honest, authentic.”
On being a female on late-night
Sykes: “It’s a great opportunity. I just try and focus on the job and being funny moreso than ‘Oh I’m a female’. I put funny first and I just happen to have boobs.”
On Lou Dobbs and the birther’s movement
Sykes: “It’s just so ridiculous. It really is ridiculous. The country is in such bad shape right now I don’t give a damn if he was from Mars.”