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NEW YORK — With all the attention concentrated on Conan O'Brien's debut next week, TBS has quietly brought on veteran late-night producer Robert Morton to take charge of George Lopez's talk show in preparation for his relaunch in the midnight hour.
Morton, who spent 14 years with David Letterman and won a Peabody Award for his work on the show, is the new executive producer of "Lopez Tonight." Since starting two months ago, he's considered the past several weeks a "preseason" period of experimentation to get ready for Nov. 8.
Lopez has spent a year in the 11 p.m. ET time slot that "Conan" will take over, reaching about a million viewers per night. Despite the show moving back an hour, TBS hopes Lopez can increase his audience by reaching O'Brien fans who may check out the show for the first time because it's paired in the late-night hour with their hero.
Morton has already helped the show gain its backstage footing and given Lopez more time to concentrate on the comedy, said Michael Wright, TBS' programming chief.
"There are a handful of people who have the skill set to do this, and he's one of them," Wright said. "We're thrilled to have him."
TBS wants O'Brien and Lopez to form a true late-night team, and Morton is a longtime close friend of Jeff Ross, O'Brien's executive producer.
Morton said he felt "Lopez Tonight" had many strong elements with the host, the band, the writers and a strong feeling of goodwill within the Hollywood community.
"It just felt there was no cohesive bond to it," he said. He's trying to make "Lopez Tonight" less of a talk show and more of a comedy show with talk elements. He's also trying to make use of his experience; Morton has also worked with Wayne Brady, Drew Carey, Carlos Mencia, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart and Cheech & Chong.
"It's just know-how — how to get into a piece and out of a piece," he said. "I'm inspiring the guys to get into new areas they haven't gone before."
In its first year, for instance, the show would tape much more material than would fit in an hour and edit to shape the show. Morton has them working "live to tape," recording the show as it would generally appear with little editing.
He also said he wants to broaden the appeal of the guest bookings, walking the line of keeping Lopez's current fans happy while bringing in new ones. For Lopez's first week following O'Brien in TBS' lineup, the show has booked Janet Jackson, Jamie Foxx, Howie Mandel, DMX, Denzel Washington and Hillary Duff as guests.
Wright said it's been difficult for Lopez to follow different programs that bring different audiences to TBS' lineup each weeknight (the show airs Monday through Thursday). The advantage of the time slot shift is he'll be following the same show — O'Brien's — every night.
It all makes Nov. 8 a big night for both O'Brien and Lopez.
"We expect a fair amount of sampling," Wright said. "It's very difficult to get people to resample a show."
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TBS is owned by Time Warner Inc.
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