Carrie Keagan’s open letter to Late-Night TV: “Hire Some Women Already!”

Carrie Keagan, who was great late in the mornings as host of VH1’s Big Morning Buzz Live from 2011-2013, could, would and perhaps should also be great as host of a late-night TV show.

If only the TV networks would give Keagan that chance.

Or any lady, for that matter.

In an open letter published online today in Vanity Fair, Keagan took TV to task for this massively egregious and longstanding oversight.

She writes, in part:

The usual excuse, when networks hang yet another late-night show on yet-another Y chromosome, is that there simply aren’t any women with the right experience for the job. But that ignores the extravagant bounty of talent visible to anyone whose eyebrows aren’t in desperate need of threading: Chelsea Handler, Ellen DeGeneresTina Fey and Amy Poehler, Amy Schumer, the ladies of S.N.L., the broads of Broad City—the list goes on and on.

Comedy is going in a great direction. I shouldn’t have to point out all the hilarious and highly qualified ladies out there, but I will: Jane Lynch, Wanda Sykes, andAisha Tyler come to mind immediately. They all have the chops and the résumés to blow a late-night show out of the water. Obviously, Ellen would make a spectacular choice as well, though she’s already well on her way to becoming the new Oprah. Plus, I don’t know a sane person that would walk away from a daytime syndicate.

We should also remember that change doesn’t begin and end with the hosts. Of the dozens of writers churning out jokes for the Big Three network late-night shows (the ones hosted by Letterman, Kimmel, and Fallon), only six are women. Things have improved—but not much—since 2009, when Nell Scovell, writing for this Web site, declared, “At this moment, there are more females serving on the United States Supreme Court than there are writing for Late Show with David Letterman, The Jay Leno Show, and The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien combined.”

Read Carrie Keagan’s full open letter to late-night TV at VanityFair.com.

When Keagan appeared in May on Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Ferguson even let her jump behind the desk in a role-reversal and impromptu audition.

Ferguson is leaving at year’s end. CBS has yet to name a replacement for him or the show.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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