Surprise: Men Dominate Late-Night TV

Turn on your TV - right now.
Its 11:53 PM as I write this, and I can almost guarantee that you won't see any women when you turn that thing on. I've noticed this before - late night TV is owned by dudes.
Anyone on any "late show" (even the late late shows!) is a dude-- even our favorite satirical late night shows feature men - Colbert and Stewart.

OK, maybe things are changing. Slowly. I'm vaguely thinking of Katie Couric and the increase of women news anchors on evening news. That's cool, and that's important. And I'm thinking of Rachel Maddow, who is freaking awesome. But my thoughts about the View and the Ellen DeGeneres show cloud my brain. These shows are kinda great - they touch on a lot of good stuff and have gained respectability…yet they're relegated to daytime.

And then let's think about the recent news about Letterman's affairs with women who work for him. We don't know the details, but there's something going on in this late night world that needs some more attention. No, not that kind of attention.

The New York Times just ran a story about the lack of female writers on late-night TV.

There are no female writers on the new “The Jay Leno Show,” none on “Late Show with David Letterman,” none on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien.”

How can this be? Are women not watching late night? Well, that's not it - the Times reports that more than half of viewership for each of those programs is made up of women.

Maybe women just aren't applying for these positions? Could be. In that Times article, one woman says that less than %5 of submissions from writers were from women. But the Herald (The Arkansas State University newspaper) puts it eloquently: How can little girls grow up and want to be something they don't even know exists? It can't just be that women don't want to be writers for late night - more likely that they don't even realize this is open to them. And well, that's because it kind of isn't.

I know lots of funny women. Really good, snarky, biting comedy coming out of women. We can think of a few mainstream ones - Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, and all my favorite women from SNL (for decades!), and women like Sarah Haskins, the coolest woman ever - but in general, comedy is man's territory. Just think of….everything.

But to lighten things up, here's a post on feministing about funny women - check the comments for everyone's recommendations
And here's a funny song about how feminists have no sense of humor (boo hoo hoo)

I'm not sure I've got it figured out though - why is "funny" just for the dudes? I'm not sure I see the connection. Comment with your hypothesis!