Stephen Colbert: We had to take "extraodinary" steps to get a diverse writers' room

The Cut

The Late Show host was "frustrated" with the challenge of making his writing staff diverse, until he realized the process of finding diverse writers was flawed. As he recounted to The New York Times, “It wasn’t until we said, no please, don’t send us anyone but women. Because we would say, you know it’s very important, we want writers of color, we want women, and you would get 150 packets and there would be eight women. And we’re like, ‘God, that’s so frustrating.’ Until I said no, only women, and then I got 87 women.” He added: "We realized we had to take an extraordinary step to get an extraordinary room. And now it’s half, you know, white guys and half either women or writers of color.”