So, I'm watching CNN the other night, and I see the outline of a familiar face on the chyron. Could it be? Is that really? Hey, what the heck!?!?
The latest entrant into the TV comedy business is ... CNN? The news network announced Wednesday that it's starting a show with comedian D.L. Hughley. Tentatively titled "D.L. Hughley Breaks the News," it will air live at 10 p.m. Saturdays and replay 24 hours later. The show will debut Oct. 25.Okay, I sorta get this. CNN watches the success of shows like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report and thinks they've gotta get in on that action. Cool. But c'mon, D.L. Hughley? I haven't seen such a consistently mediocre black man keep getting jobs like this since Lenny Wilkens. Clearly, I need Darryl Lynn's agent.
Hughley describes it as a news-oriented talk show — more like David Letterman's and Jay Leno's program than Jon Stewart's. It will air before a live audience from CNN's New York studio.
Jon Klein, CNN U.S. president, said he took note of Hughley when the comic made an appearance on Glenn Beck's CNN Headline News show last year. Hughley, one of the four "Original Kings of Comedy," had a four-year run as the star of his own ABC sitcom and his own late-night show for Comedy Central.
Hughley was shopping his prospective one-hour show to two other networks when Klein called his agent to express interest.
Comedy on news networks — planned comedy, that is — is unusual but not unprecedented. Fox News Channel aired the "Half Hour News Hour," but production stopped in 2007. CNN International, seen outside of the United States, airs reruns of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show."
"The audience that gets so much of its news from comedians these days clearly has no problem with that," Klein said.
Klein said CNN drew a record high audience for cable television among the youthful 18-to-49-year-old audience during the second presidential debate, so the network wants to keep those young viewers engaged. News viewership tends to skew old, an audience less valuable to advertisers.
As for setting limits on Hughley, Klein said, "Anything goes."
"It's a black guy and a Jewish producer, so we will stand out like `Mississippi Burning,'" he said.
I'm not saying Hughley isn't funny. His early days of Comic View were classic. And for the record, his standup career is far more successful than anything Stewart did pre-Daily Show.
But DL just doesn't seem to have the gravitas to pull this off. His shortlived Comedy Central talk show, Weekends At The DL, was atrocious. His appearances on shows like Real Time With Bill Maher and The Glenn Beck Show don't give me the impression that this cat is extremely knowledgeable when it comes to politricks.
Awww hell, who am I kidding!?! I still can't get over this clip.
Is it wrong for me to still be upset about that "nappy headed hoes" comment more than a year after the fact? Prolly not, but I'm sorry, I just cannot get over that. That sh*t was a straight up James T. Harris b*tch move in my book.
I wonder how dude could go home and look his wife and daughter in the eyes after that bullsh*t.
I prolly won't watch this show, so I guess I shouldn't bash it. Could it possibly be any worse than Chocolate News or The Tony Rock Project? Even though I wished CNN's affirmative action hire had been Roland Martin instead, I guess I should just be happy to see black men working, no matter how mediocre the product.
Nah. Bump that.
If you wanna support a black man on TeeVee, peep BET's slept on Somebodies. Now that's comedy.
Screw DL Hughley. A true Nappy Headed Hoe!
Question: Will you watch DL Hughley's show on CNN? Have you gotten over that whole Nappy Headed Hoes comment or am I just being too damn sensitive as usual?
CNN to start weekend comedy show with D.L. Hughley [AP]
