Discussion: Internet Reacts To Vanity Fair Cover Featuring Non-Diverse Late Show Hosts

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Discussion for article #240475

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Isn’t that Larry Wilmore? If I didn’t know who he was, I’d say that not only is this an all-male club, it’s an all-white, male one.

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The thinking is that the presidency is the last glass ceiling a woman can break, but this tells me it’s really late night comedy shows.

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Trevor Noah as well.

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Conservatives won’t be bothered by the gender ratio, but they will be concerned that 30% of those jobs have been taken by foreigners. And yes, they are probably mostly left-leaning even if most of the shows are apolitical, but it was proven long ago that conservatives can’t do comedy. Making humorous observations about what’s going on the world requires a grasp on reality.

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Yeah, SO completely and utterly white-dominated that the 2 blacks in the group only constitute a mere 8% more than in normal population.

Hispanics? Precisely as many as have been presidents.
Asians? By remarkable coincidence: ditto!
Gays? About as many as you’d expect on an NFL roster.

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A better question might be, “Who cares?” It is television we are talking about, not education, government, medicine, engineering or computer “science.”

That being said, Ellen DeGeneres seems to be doing well in daytime, Chelsea Handler ended her show and Joan Rivers and Rosie O’Donnel both struck out, as I recall.

One could also make the case that there are about seven too many late night shows hosted by males and that the talent/value is pretty thin regardless of who’s hosting.

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I don’t understand how this is Vanity Fair’s fault. Are there female late-night hosts they excluded? Or should they have invented some for the sake of their story?

And I’m actually asking that honestly, since I haven’t watch TV ever since 30 Rock ended; and even that was on Netflix.

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I think the “better than ever” is the origin of much of the derision. It implies a pretty flawed metric.

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I guess the only “politically correct” thing to do would be not to mention it at all. You know hide it. Because that’s gonna cause change.

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But you can watch 30 Rock over and over. TMI? I love that show.

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Was it ever better before, it terms of gender representation? If not, I don’t see any problem with “better than ever”.

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Joan Rivers had a very short lived show on Fox. That’s it.

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the really sad thing is that the last female to have a late night talk show on one of the four major networks (Fox,ABC, CBS and NBC) was strangely Wanda Sykes (Her FOX show didn’t last that long.)

Side note: While looking up the Rivers information, I found this section on one of the Wiki articles. Please notice the ‘diversity’.

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Wanda Sykes was the second female comic to have a late night talk show on Fox.

by the way, they canned Rivers, but the show still lived for nearly a year and a half. Before his role on Coming to America, that show had Arsenio Hall as a brief host.

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Oh yes that’s right.

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Here’s the problem: Grace Helbig has a late night show on E, but she didn’t get invited for that cover shoot/article. However Trevor Noah got on that cover and no one really knows how he will suss out as the Daily Show’s new host. So I can understand why Wilmore made the cover (because frankly if neither he or Noah were on it…), but an explanation is needed as to why didn’t they put either Helbig or Samantha Bee on that cover*.

*-Also if Joel (from Talk Soup/Community) was still doing the talk show gig, its very likely that he would be on that cover.

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The problem is perhaps a diversity one. Before the Wanda Sykes show came and went quicker than Barry Allen traveling through a Checkers drive through, the last woman to host a late night talk show on a top four network (no cable) was Joan Rivers and that tenure didn’t last long.

Grace Helbig has a late night tv show on E, but she didn’t make that cover. However Trevor Noah did and he hasn’t premièred yet. Samantha Bee (Daily Show) is supposed to have a show in '15 and she didn’t make that cover (laser beam shooting centaurs don’t count), but James Corden did.

The talent is mayhaps so-so, but here’s the thing: if Helbig is still around doing that talk show and James Corden washes out, then what was the reason for putting him on that cover. John Oliver is relevant and Larry Wilmore is somewhat awesome, but once again, two newbies that most never heard of made that cover.

Something is wrong with that.

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I can’t really say about Samantha Bee, but they probably left Helbig off because her show finished its first eight episode season back in June and it is currently unclear if E! plans on renewing the show for another season. As for the inclusion of Trevor Noah and James Corden, they are likely there as much because they are taking over established brands in the Late Night field as anything else.

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It’s 80% white. Which is pretty much exactly in line with the population.