'Lopez Tonight' Gets Cancelled; Last Episode Thursday

EW is reporting that one of the only visible Hispanic voices on the major talk show circuit has been shown the door. "Lopez Tonight," hosted by comedian George Lopez, has been cancelled, and apparently the last show is Thursday. The show had been the lead-in to Conan O'Brien's talk show "Conan."

TBS executives released a statement about the show's demise today:

“TBS has reached the difficult decision not to order a third season of Lopez Tonight. Thursday will be the final episode of the show. We are proud to have partnered with George Lopez, who is an immensely talented comedian and entertainer. TBS has valued its partnership with George and appreciates all of his work on behalf of the network, both on and off the air.”

While the extremely abrupt cancellation was surprising, the fact that the show was shut down at all is not as much of a shocker.

TBS bought into "Conan" hoping to create a solid two-hour block of comedy talk shows that would bring the network in a large group of new viewers, with "Lopez Tonight" envisioned as a strong opener. After initial ratings for "Conan" were positive, the show has not performed as well as execs had originally hoped on TBS. "Lopez Tonight" has seen a particularly precipitous downslide after the initial "Conan" bump.

As TMZ explains it, Lopez may have been done in by Conan in effect "pulling a Jay Leno" on George.

"Well Lopez had the 11 PM time slot for its first season, but then when Conan came to TBS a year ago he took over the 11 PM slot and Lopez moved to midnight -- meaning George was relying on Conan to deliver a good lead-in. But when the change was made, George's audience plummeted 40%."

Raven Symone and comedian Auggie Smith will apparently be the show's final guests.

What do you think of the cancellation? Let us know in the comments.