Stand-up comedian and actress, Wanda Sykes stars as Wanda Hawkins, a struggling comic living in Washington DC, who manages to land a job as an on-air news reporter at a local news station. In the series premiere, Wanda, through flashbacks, relates how she was hired and subsequently fired from her job when her liberal views clash with the conservative news anchors.

Wanda becomes enamored with her flirtatious interview subject Jonathan Lyles, the director of public relations at the Board of Health. Unfortunately, after she begins dating Jonathan, Wanda finds out that her crew has captured footage of major health violations - in the cafeteria at the Board of Health. She must decide whether to produce a great exposé, embarrassing Jonathan, or suppress the evidence in order to preserve her relationship. Meanwhile, when Wanda's nephew, Barris gets into trouble at school for cursing like Wanda, Jenny forces Wanda to accompany her and Barris to a conference with his teacher.

When Jenny, Barris, and Holly determine to throw Wanda a surprise birthday party despite Keith's warnings, he hides Wanda's keys to detain her, but then she thinks she's been robbed.

Wanda does an exposé on a crooked councilman, but when he dies unexpectedly before the piece airs, her boss edits it into a tribute without her consent, so she is invited to speak about the man at his funeral.

Wanda and Keith are invited to receive honorary doctorates from the college they both attended—and from which they were expelled. Their differences of opinion on how they should conduct themselves at the ceremony result in a rift in their friendship.