# Why aren't there any women late-night hosts in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 2, 2014, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-women-late-night-hosts-in-the-us/680366 "2014-02-02T18:55:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2014, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-women-late-night-hosts-in-the-us/680366/41 "2014-02-04T22:31:15Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It seems to have escaped everyone’s notice, but late night over-the-air comedy hosts are also overwhelmingly white Arsenio is back, so there’s one non-white host. There’ve also been failed shows over the last couple decades by non-white guys like Magic Johnson, Keenan Ivory Wayans, and George Lopez. Perhaps one issue is that where the white hosts more or less tend to go for a more mainstream, broad appeal, some might say “bland” guest list, where someone like Arsenio tends for a different group of guests. Which is great, there should be a forum for the sort of guests the Lenos and Lettermans (Lettermen?) would never touch, but it’s just not going to draw from as big of pool of potential audience, so you’re really not going to be able to have more than one show of that type going at a time without the shows stealing ratings from one another and putting each other out of business. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-women-late-night-hosts-in-the-us/680366/42 "2014-02-05T02:47:26Z")
> [@That\_Don\_Guy](#): > > “The version I heard was,” > (a) Rivers felt that Carson slighted her first when she discovered a “leaked” memo with the short list of who Carson wanted to replace him when he retired, and her name wasn’t on it; > (b) supposedly, the reason she didn’t mention it to anybody, including Carson, was along of the lines that it wasn’t a done deal until it was announced; > (c) Carson made it clear that anybody who went on her show would never be allowed on his, so few people who made appearances shilling their latest movies/TV series would have anything to do with her show - after all, The Tonight Show is The Tonight Show. > > Then again, there’s (d) the fact that the show was on at 11 PM Eastern/Pacific, which is when most people who are up that late watch their local news. True, the Fox affiliates had 10 PM local news programs, but this was not really an option to anyone who had a favorite 10 PM network show (examples at the time: Cagney & Lacey; Hill Street Blues; L.A. Law). I certainly agree with your a and c. I don’t know about b but won’t argue with you. As for your d, I wonder how many folks watching Joan changed the channel at 11:30 PM eastern to Carson. Though what with c, there wasn’t much reason to watch Joan anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Ibanez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a4c791/32.png) [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2014, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-women-late-night-hosts-in-the-us/680366/43 "2014-02-05T03:25:26Z")
Easy. It’s because of two factors; you have to be suited for late night television and second be [funny.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=EsEr6xNN8Hw#t=0) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-arent-there-any-women-late-night-hosts-in-the-us/680366.md?page=2)