George Lopez wants to get the party started

These days, it seems like just about everybody has their own late-night talk show. So why not George Lopez?

Unlike Dave and Jay and Conan and Craig and Jimmy and Jimmy, George isn't on a broadcast network. "Lopez Tonight" debuts Monday on cable — TBS, to be exact.

And Lopez is promising that his show will be less of a traditional talk show than the others.

"I'm just trying to have a party," Lopez said. "Parties are spontaneous."

So don't expect to see him come out every night and tell jokes. He might open some shows with stand-up, but if he's got a great guest or a great musical act booked, they could be up first.

"Why would you hold George Clooney back, and why would you not bring out somebody fantastic early to get that thing going — to get that party started that way?" he said. "This is different every night."

When the host talks about "Lopez Tonight," the word "party" comes up a lot. Lopez's goal is not to be Letterman or Leno but to perhaps be more like the more free-wheeling Arsenio Hall,

"Look, I was on 'Arsenio' 16 times 20 years ago. I've talked to Arsenio about this show," Lopez said. "It's been 20 years since Arsenio has been on ... and it's time to take that thing and use that as a template and then move it to the next level."

As was the case with Hall, Lopez is breaking barriers simply by hosting his own late-night show. He's the only Hispanic in the game.

"I only feel added pressure because, apparently, in some parts of the country, I'll be up against (Spanish-language) novelas. I don't think I can win that battle," Lopez said. "But, no, I don't feel any pressure to do anything other than what I've been doing the last 30 years and it is making people laugh and entertaining."

And nobody is talking about appealing to a narrow demographic.

"It's a show with broad appeal," said Michael Wright, head of programming for TBS, TNT and TCM. "Actually, if you look at (ratings for repeats of) his sitcom on Nickelodeon, I think 18 percent of that audience is Latino. Do the math. The other 82 percent is everybody else."

And the thinking is that there is an audience available.

"As many shows as there are on right now, only 30 percent of the late-night audiences watches all of those shows combined," said "Lopez Tonight" executive producer Jim Paratore. "There's a huge audience that's not attached to those shows."

And the plan is to grab a chunk of that audience by putting a high-octane party on the air. It's "a simple plan ... to create an energy that isn't anywhere on TV," Lopez said.

e-mail: pierce@desnews.com