"Music is going to be a big part of 'Lopez Tonight.' Michael is an extraordinary musical talent who has been sought out by some of the world's most popular artists from the late Michael Jackson to Madonna. Having him a part of the show illustrates how seriously we take music," said Paratore.

Most recently, Bearden served as Musical Director for "This Is It," the series of 50 concerts by Michael Jackson to be held in London before Jackson's death and can be seen as keyboardist in the upcoming film documenting Michael Jackson's rehearsals of the concert series of the same name. Michael is also the music supervisor, composer and associate producer of the film.

Bearden's diverse musical skills have been used by the biggest names in music including Brandy, Christina Aguilera, Ricky Martin, Destiny's Child, D'Angelo, Marc Dorsey, Faith Evans, Brian McKnight, Nicole Renee and Jennifer Lopez. He has performed and/or recorded with world-class artists including Madonna, Whitney Houston, Lionel Richie, Chaka Kahn, Patti Austin, James Ingram, Babyface, Lenny Kravitz, Yoko Ono, George Benson, Natalie Cole, Sophie B. Hawkins, Anita Baker, Edie Brickell, and legends Nancy Wilson, Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Liza Minelli and Ray Charles.

An accomplished composer, Michael's feature film scores include the Spike Lee produced film "Drop Squad," (Eriq Lasalle, Ving Rhames) and the indie film by first time director Jordan Walker Pearlman, "The Visit" (Rae Dawn Chong, Billy Dee Williams). Michael scored other independent features, "The Arrangement" for filmmaker H.H.Cooper, "One Week" for director Carl Seaton and "Redrum" for director Kenny Young. He has also scored several documentaries, ABC'S "Swingtown," CW's "The Game" and HBO's "Brave New Voices" and performed on the soundtracks to the box office hits such as "The Body Guard," "Shaft 2," and "Four Brothers." Additionally, Michael was principal keyboardist for the star-studded President Barack Obama inaugural concert at the Lincoln Memorial.

Additionally, he maintained the principal pianist/keyboard positions in two "Cosby" television show bands, and is frequently called by "Late Show with David Letterman" band leader Paul Shaffer whenever he needs a substitute for the CBS broadcast.

With "Lopez Tonight," George Lopez will bring his high-energy, opinionated, irreverent and very funny comedy to late night on TBS. This 60-minute program will break out of the pack and re-energize late-night.