Lopez vs. Lopez has officially returned to the small screen for Season 2, with NBC giving the sitcom a strong debut with two back-to-back episodes in the 2024 TV schedule time slots previously belonging to Night Court and Extended Family. Real-life father and daughter George and Mayan Lopez are bringing the comedy back to primetime with a slate of new guest stars, coming off of none other than Snoop Dogg's appearance in the Season 1 finale. I spoke with the two stars recently, and after George Lopez reflected on his long career, Mayan opened about about the show's "different energy" this time around.
At SCAD TVfest this year, George Lopez was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and he spoke with CinemaBlend about how breaking into showbiz "seemed virtually impossible" back when he started. Now he's the co-lead of his third sitcom, this time opposite his daughter. While Mayan Lopez doesn't have the decades of stand-up comedy to her name that her father does, she told me about her history with performing in front of an audience and how that audience is different in Season 2. She shared:
What's funny is that I was more comfortable with working in front of a live studio audience than I was with learning multi-cam. I come from a sketch background at Second City. I studied there and did a lot of improv, so I know audiences, and I love feeding off of that. I think it's such a gift that we get. And now also with the second season of the show, we have fans in the audience now. People know our characters, and it creates a different energy that really energizes us through these episodes. And I think it's something that I've gotten more comfortable with, on the acting side. So now that I feel like they're married and blended together, I think we all create beautiful art together. Every week is different.
The first season may have had a live studio audience rather than canned laughter, but Lopez vs. Lopez was still a very new show back in the 2022-2023 TV season. Now, months later, following a WGA writers strike and SAG-AFTRA actors strike, and with Season 1 available streaming via Netflix subscription and Peacock Premium subscription, is it any wonder that the audience members are also fans of the show already? In fact, Mayan Lopez isn't the only star of an NBC sitcom to share the special kind of energy from an audience of fans, as many Night Court stars have said the same.
As for Lopez vs. Lopez, the show will continue airing back-to-back episodes through the end of April. The earliest announcements about the double episodes confirmed some fun guest stars, including Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias, Diana Maria Riva, and Marshawn Lynch. Some fairly big names as guest stars don't come as a surprise after Season 1 recruited stars including Rita Moreno, Danny Trejo, Melissa Fumero, and Harvey Guillén, to name just some.
Considering another star's praise of George Lopez's "hands-on" approach to comedy and what Mayan Lopez shared about the Season 2 studio audience, I think it's a safe bet that there will be plenty of laughs courtesy of the Lopez family the second time around. You can tune in to NBC on Tuesdays starting at 8 p.m. ET for new episodes of Lopez vs. Lopez, and/or stream new episodes of Season 2 the next day on Peacock, along with all six seasons of the George Lopez show.
