Wanda Sykes and Late Night TV’s New Color Barrier
Oct 30, 2009 Entertainment
Granted, late night isn’t quite the good ol’ boys’ network it’s made out to be. Minorities have hosted shows over the years—Whoopi Goldberg, Keenen Ivory Wayans, even Magic Johnson—but most to little success. The exception is Arsenio Hall, who became an unexpected phenomenon during his four-year run in the early ’90s. Twenty years later, it seems like minority late-night talk-show hosts would have a better shot at breaking through, but given these particular hosts, we’re probably not witnessing the birth of the next Arsenio.