Why Are There A Lack of Female Writers on Late-Night Comedy Programs?

The latest controversial chronicles of David Letterman keeps evolving. After the revelation that he had an affair with a handful of female employees from Late Show with David Letterman, more confessions from those female employees are coming out. Along with this, it has been discovered that there are hardly any women writers on most late-night talk shows. So, what gives? Why is there such an uneven ratio of men-to-women on late night?

The amount of complaints by female workers at Letterman’s talk show have been growing, which have been bringing to light how the job is backstage. In the article ‘David Letterman and Me’ by Nell Scovell on vanityfair.com, she gets in-depth with what goes on behind-the-scenes at the CBS show. Without going too much in detail, Scovell says,

…let’s address the pertinent questions. Did Dave hit on me? No. Did he pay me enough extra attention that it was noted by another writer? Yes. Was I aware of rumors that Dave was having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Was I aware that other high-level male employees were having sexual relationships with female staffers? Yes. Did the female staffers have access to information and wield power disproportionate to their job titles? Yes. Did that create a hostile work environment? Yes. Did I believe these female staffers were benefiting professionally from their personal relationships? Yes. Did that make me feel demeaned? Completely. Did I say anything at the time? Sadly, no.

Scovell also takes note that when hiring female writers in the future, him, Jay Leno and Conan O’Brien should respect them as they do their male writers. Similarly, New Yorker reviewer Nancy Franklin said something along those lines when reviewing The Jay Leno Show in the magazine’s October 5 issue:

In other diversity news, Leno’s and the rest of the nighttime comedy shows are bizarrely lacking in women writers. Did a bomb go off and kill all the women comedy writers and leave the men standing? The other night on the Emmy Awards broadcast, the names of the nominees for best writing on a comedy or variety series were read, and, out of eighty-one people, only seven were women. Leno has no women writers on his show. Neither does David Letterman, and neither does Conan O’Brien. Come on.

If so many female writers are noticing this lack of female talent on these sorts of shows, one has to wonder why this is the case. Essentially, late night is a boys’ club. It is the place where talk show hosts and comedians can unleash their dirtiest jokes, scandalous viewpoints on the day’s events, and crudest material. Men assume that females don’t have the same sense of humor as men. While their sense of humor may or may not be the same as men’s, they know how to be funny in their own way.

On occasion, some talk show hosts throws some female writers in to diversify their monologues. Jimmy Fallon hired the very funny New Yorker writer Amy Ozols, and Chelsea Handler has five female writers on her staff, three are near-permanent writers. Both shows are extremely funny, even with female writers on staff. Late-night hosts shouldn’t fear the female; they should embrace. And if they do embrace, they shouldn’t do it sexually. Otherwise, more editorials and confessionals will leak and more talk show hosts will look bad and lose respect and credibility. I’m looking at you, Jimmy Kimmel.

 

~ by jessicaobscura on October 31, 2009.