No girls allowed
Late night television leaves no room for female hosts
Elle Greenberry
Issue date: 11/16/09 Section: Opinion
Apparently the growing trend of women entering the work place still isn't complete in every work place.
There's Leno, O'Brian, Ferguson, Kimmel, Fallon and Letterman. The Late Night boys all have something in common, no matter how distinct their networks may try to portray them.
Don't know what it is? Well, they all belong to the exclusive gentleman's club of national syndicated late night television.
The glass ceiling is well on display when late night television starts. In 1993 "Late Night" underwent some construction which consisted of the "Tonight Show" hiring its first female writer in its 39 year history.
It was described as the biggest thing since Ed McMahon began saying "Here's Johnny!" That's right, in 1993 women were just entering behind the scenes and it's been 16 years since then and still no woman has successfully been accepted to be into the "Late Night" club.
The reason may be complex and perhaps producers just haven't stumbled upon a pretty little lady who can compete on the same level.
The idea is the same, however, even today, there are few women writers for the television shows.
What this shows is that if the majority of the audience for this television genre is female and television has been vastly changing to adapt the growing female audience, why not in this particular department?
You can't just expect a woman to jump out of bed one morning and start hosting a national syndicated television show no matter where or when it airs.
That's why I'm not saying just give women the job because they are women or put them on television simply because of the extra X chromosome they have.
How can little girls grow up and want to be something they don't even know exists?
Of course, the audiences for these television shows aren't little girls or little boys, either, so why are the host all former little boys?
What I am saying is that times are changing and there are just as many female writers that are capable of writing cynical jokes about politicians, musicians and civilian's mishaps and from that they can become a host.
There's Leno, O'Brian, Ferguson, Kimmel, Fallon and Letterman. The Late Night boys all have something in common, no matter how distinct their networks may try to portray them.
Don't know what it is? Well, they all belong to the exclusive gentleman's club of national syndicated late night television.
The glass ceiling is well on display when late night television starts. In 1993 "Late Night" underwent some construction which consisted of the "Tonight Show" hiring its first female writer in its 39 year history.
It was described as the biggest thing since Ed McMahon began saying "Here's Johnny!" That's right, in 1993 women were just entering behind the scenes and it's been 16 years since then and still no woman has successfully been accepted to be into the "Late Night" club.
The reason may be complex and perhaps producers just haven't stumbled upon a pretty little lady who can compete on the same level.
The idea is the same, however, even today, there are few women writers for the television shows.
What this shows is that if the majority of the audience for this television genre is female and television has been vastly changing to adapt the growing female audience, why not in this particular department?
You can't just expect a woman to jump out of bed one morning and start hosting a national syndicated television show no matter where or when it airs.
That's why I'm not saying just give women the job because they are women or put them on television simply because of the extra X chromosome they have.
How can little girls grow up and want to be something they don't even know exists?
Of course, the audiences for these television shows aren't little girls or little boys, either, so why are the host all former little boys?
What I am saying is that times are changing and there are just as many female writers that are capable of writing cynical jokes about politicians, musicians and civilian's mishaps and from that they can become a host.
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