It's tough for women in late-night: Even Samantha Bee has more male than female writers

Los Angeles Times

The Los Angeles Times' Meredith Blake, inspired by Mindy Kaling's new film Late Night, broke down the percentage of women in each late-night show's writers' room. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee came out on top with 45%, followed by Desus & Mero (44%), Late Night with Seth Meyers (28%), Last Week Tonight With John Oliver (25%) and The Late Late Show with James Corden (24%). Jimmy Kimmel Live!, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon each had a writing staff that's 22% female. As The Times' Blake points out, "Busy Tonight had a 100% female writing staff...but it got cancelled." Molly McNearney, co-head writer of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Jimmy Kimmel's wife, has seen this disparity play out from both sides of the hiring process. “The sad fact is that more men are applying for these jobs than women,” she says. “It’s very frustrating. We’ll get a group of 300 packets and maybe 50 will be from women.” To seek out more women, McNearney has looked beyond the traditional gatekeepers, including sending direct messages to talented women on Twitter. “Having women in the room and people from different backgrounds is essential, because Jimmy only has one voice,” says McNearney, who's voiced her objection to jokes about Hillary Clinton’s pantsuits, vented about Brett Kavanaugh, and is currently planning a segment about abortion with the show’s other female writers. Nell Scovell, who was the second woman to write for Late Night With David Letterman, after trailblazing head writer and Late Night co-creator Merrill Markoe, says the industry has “a broken doorbell problem. There are plenty of women with the talent and the ability and nobody’s opening the door for them.”