OK, so men still rule the waning hours on the big three — and this may ruin my prediction that Ellen will be the first lady to really rock a late show — but woohoo! The Wanda Sykes Show premieres this Saturday on Fox.

The hilarious Sykes already broke down barriers as the first black woman — and openly gay individual — to perform at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner. Her HBO stand-up comedy special “I’ma Be Me” was peddled as a kind of uncensored sequel to that night’s performance. I hope you caught it — or at least enjoyed some YouTube clips — because it was insightful and fantastic, both relevant and progressive without being preachy.

Newsweek recently published an article about the success (and lack thereof) of minority talk-show hosts. Whoopi’s been there, so have Keenen Ivory Wayans and Magic Johnson, and now there seems to be another swell: Along with Sykes, Mo’Nique and George Lopez both have shows on the roster. But will their late-night career trajectories be more in the vein of Arsenio Hall’s or Johnson’s?

Sykes has been offered a late night show before, but she felt now was the right time because “With what’s going on politically, I just felt it would be an interesting time to have this kind of platform.”

Newsweek writer Joshua Alston, though, doesn’t really think that in the Age of Obama she’ll be ”dangerous” enough to achieve what Arsenio — who invited out gay guests, inciting riotous protests — did during the first Bush admin.

Can any of this new crop even approach that sense of danger? Politically topical comedy has proven every bit as tricky as people worried it would be in the Obama era (though Mr. Edwards, Mr. Ensign, and Mr. Sanford have arguably pulled the focus a little). These newbies will almost certainly have a harder time than the other members of the liberal establishment media. Lopez formally endorsed Obama. Mo’Nique, in a radio interview, offered to be his secretary of state. Sykes’s appearance at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner was most notable for its uncharacteristic deference to Obama—though she had no problem savaging Bush 43. You’d think that as minorities, they will be able to crack wise with impunity in ways a white comic wouldn’t dare. But so far we’ve seen the opposite: a desire to go easy on Obama, perhaps because of their politics, perhaps because they’re loath to go negative on an accomplished minority, maybe a little of both.

The writer goes on to wonder how these comics, liberal and of color, can play “in the same league as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert with the extra layer of race,” saying “what we really need is a host with no sacred comedy cows.” I think he’s doing a lot of assuming, and you know what happens when you assume. Oh, and just so we know he’s not advocating all-white hosts who have more distance as long as Obama’s in office, he makes this suggestion:

I’d vote for a late-night show headed by Sheryl Underwood, the hilarious black comedienne who describes herself as a “sexually progressive, God-fearing Republican.”

And you know? That might be great, too — the more voices the better. In the meantime, I suggest you watch Wanda’s show on Saturday at 11/10c, because she is a new voice as far as late-night goes, and she’s damn funny no matter who’s in office.