One of Vanity Fair's most recent issues contained an article profiling how late night television has essentially evolved since the time of Johnny Carson and even from when David Letterman and Jay Leno started out. These days the likes of Jimmy Fallon, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Kimmel, Stephen Colbert, and others are the ones that dominate the late night time slot. Though arguably they are funny and adequate hosts who have indeed helped the hours between 11 pm and 2 am become very popular, a problem still exists: there isn't a prominent female late night host.
The thing is, multiple changes have occurred over the past few years in terms of major television hosting jobs. The most recent example that comes to mind would be Trevor Noah replacing Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's beloved "The Daily Show." As an avid follower of the show, my initial reaction upon hearing the news of this was the shock that Jessica Williams did not receive the hosting position. Williams has proved herself more than worthy as someone who could fill the huge void Jon Steward left behind. But instead Trevor Noah, who has barely been on the show for a year, became the choice.
Trevor Noah definitely possess the versatility and talent to hold his own at the helm. However at the same time I am sick of hearing various television networks defending their decisions to go with another male host, claiming they selected the most capable out of the selection pool. Although it's good that people are outraged by this constant blunder and the October 2015 Vanity Fair article does dedicate a few paragraphs to the fact that woman are still missing from this realm, that quite honestly doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things.
Blatant sexism still exists in the entertainment industry and it becomes more of a practice to be outraged by it than do anything about it. I find it more alarming that in this day and age, it still comes as no surprise that men dominate the late night world. Another example of this would be Saturday Night Live. A few years ago SNL added Sasheer Zamata to their Featured Player cast after receiving backlash over their lack of women of color on the show. Zamata proved herself as a great addition to the show but once again why is it that it takes a certain amount of backlash before something is done?
Clearly television still doesn't get it. And clearly the entertainment industry in general still doesn't get it. I could go into detail about the fact that women in the entertainment industry still make significantly less than their male counterparts, come under constant scrutiny for aging poorly and therefore lose roles to younger women, and are perpetually judged on their appearance, but then I'd have to publish a series on the matter.
Unfortunately this is becoming an exhausting topic to discuss. Although it is positive that we acknowledge these biases and are upset by them, it's discouraging to see the industry (most likely a bunch of elderly white men) not budging on the matter.
