{"id":15998,"date":"2017-11-15T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T15:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=15998"},"modified":"2017-11-15T09:34:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T15:34:34","slug":"wgns-pat-tomasulo-fill-void-late-night-comedy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2017\/11\/15\/wgns-pat-tomasulo-fill-void-late-night-comedy\/","title":{"rendered":"WGN\u2019s Pat Tomasulo to \u2018fill the void\u2019 in late-night comedy"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

<\/a> Pat Tomasulo<\/p><\/div>\n

For the first time since \u201cBozo\u201d went off the air in 2001, WGN-Channel 9 <\/a>will be producing a local weekly entertainment program. This time the funnyman in the spotlight will be WGN Morning News<\/a> sports anchor and stand-up comedian Pat Tomasulo.<\/p>\n

The Tribune Broadcasting station officially unveiled plans Wednesday for \u201cMan of the People with Pat Tomasulo,\u201d <\/a>to air from 10 to 10:30 p.m. Saturdays, starting in late January.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s described as a topical comedy show with Tomasulo \u201cbreaking down the week in news, current events and pop culture through a common sense perspective to the \u2018everyman viewer.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Mocking his \u201cman of the people\u201d persona, Tomasulo entered the morning show studio Wednesday astride a horse and dressed as one of the founding fathers. \u201cFanfare for the Common Man\u201d played in the background.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to fill the void,\u201d Tomasulo declared. \u201cYou know everybody is so mad in this country about everything. I want to unite us over the things that we all hate, right? And there are a lot of things that we all hate: Flo, the Progressive lady, we can\u2019t stand her. Pregnant celebrity pictures. Why Panera gives you a side of bread with a sandwich every time you go in there. I mean there are a lot of things.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement released by the station, he said: \u201cI never imagined I\u2019d be hosting a late night show on WGN. Honestly, I figured they would have fired me long ago. So, before they finally come to their senses, I\u2019ll do this show. Hopefully it doesn\u2019t accelerate the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

WGN officials clearly have high hopes. In a promotional video to advertisers they said the show would have \u201cnational potential.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Lyons, news director of WGN, said of Tomasulo: \u201cHe\u2019s such a rare talent.\u00a0We\u2019re excited to showcase him and give him his own outlet. It\u2019s been 16 years since we\u2019ve produced a program with a studio audience here at WGN . . . so we\u2019ve gone from one Bozo to the next.\u201d<\/p>\n

Executive producer is Doug Karo, a native of Elmhurst and graduate of Columbia college. Karo previously was executive producer and showrunner for shows on TBS, truTV, SYFY, and Comedy Central.<\/p>\n

Tomasulo joined WGN in 2005 from WKBW, the ABC affiliate in Buffalo, New York, where he was a sports anchor. He graduated from the College of New Jersey near Trenton and began his career as weekend sports anchor, reporter and sports director for WJFW, the NBC affiliate in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Tomasulo and his wife, Amy, created \u201cLaugh Your Face Off,\u201d an annual comedy show that has raised more than $625,000 for the Facial Pain Research Foundation.<\/p>\n

Tuesday\u2019s best comment:<\/a> Al Usdrowski:<\/strong> Dear Diary: Surprise! Today I learned Mancow is still around.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time since \u201cBozo\u201d went off the air in 2001, WGN-Channel 9 will be producing a local weekly entertainment program. This time the funnyman in the spotlight will be WGN Morning News sports anchor and stand-up comedian Pat Tomasulo. The Tribune Broadcasting station officially unveiled plans Wednesday for \u201cMan of the People with... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15998"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16005,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15998\/revisions\/16005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}