late-night television

Dear Jon,

It is with tenderness, regret, and hope that I pen this proclamation of devotion and disappointment. Our unrequited affair began nine years ago, when I was a freshman at Northwestern University, the very incubator of your colleague Mr. Colbert, who was nevertheless no apple to my eye. "Who is that man of intelligence and charm?" I inquired of my roommate after my first viewing of The Daily Show. These affections only deepened with time. And yet recently, your show has troubled me.

Television has given us a lot of great things over the past decade, but it's really dropped the ball on Wanda Sykes. If we're lucky, her new late-night show might just stick.

I'm sure that pun's been done, but Wanda Sykes is slotted to have her own late night show on Saturdays on Fox! According to the New York Times, Sykes' show may replace the wasn't-canceled-soon-enough MAD TV. I'm not a big late-night TV fan--I just can't handle watching Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, Craig "WTF? (Why's This Funny?)" Ferguson, and especially the terrible terribleness of MAD TV, but this is getting me excited about SNL alternatives, especially since the NY Times reports it will feature panels and discussion of current events, which, given that it's Wanda, will hopefully mean something a bit smarter than the rest of late night drivel (miss you, Conan!) and a whole lot funnier than PBS. Wanda would be joining the ranks of Ellen DeGeneres and Rosie O'Donnell as an openly gay woman hosting their own shows, and is one of the only female late-night host currently on television. Video after the jump...