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The nightly late-night writing staffs for America’s TV talk shows in 2017

Something remarkable happened on Wednesday’s episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

It wasn’t one of the many game shows within Fallon’s talk shows, or something his musical guest performed, or anything from Fallon’s monologue or from his overly enthusiastic interactions with his guests. Nor was it even particularly funny.

After Hillary Clinton, the woman who could’ve, would’ve and perhaps should’ve been president of the United States, plugged her memoir on the show, Fallon invited the women on his writing staff to pen their own “Thank You Notes” to the former First Lady and Secretary of State of the United States. One by one, the women stepped forward and sat behind Fallon’s desk. They offered sincere thanks. They teared up. They made quips. Once all seven of them thanked Hillary, musical guest Miley Cyrus also showed up, teared up, and then asked for a hug.

Wait. There were — there are — seven women credited as writers for The Tonight Show these days and nights?

Indeed there are.

American late-night TV talk shows have come a long way in just the past couple of years in terms of balancing the ratio of women to men on their writing staffs, as well as better reflecting the diverse population of the United States. Well, some shows have done better than others in this respect.

So I thought it wise to check in with all of our nation’s late-night TV talk shows that produce four or five shows a week to find out who’s writing where. These are the results. These are your writing staffs in late-night TV (nightly editions) for Fall 2017.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

  • Jonathan Adler (monologue supervised by)
  • Chris Belair
  • Sage Boggs
  • Patrick Borelli
  • Gerard Bradford
  • Dan Chamberlain
  • Mike DiCenzo
  • Colin Elzie
  • Caroline Eppright
  • Taryn Englehart
  • Jimmy Fallon
  • Jo Firestone
  • Eli Grober
  • Becky Krause
  • Stephen Levinson
  • Paul Masella
  • Arthur Meyer (sketch writing supervised by)
  • Jasmine Pierce
  • Jon Rineman (monologue supervised by)
  • Albertina Rizzo
  • Chris Tartaro

 

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

  • Head writers: Jay Katsir and Opus Moreschi
  • Stephen T. Colbert
  • Michael Brumm
  • Nate Charny
  • Aaron Cohen
  • Cullen Crawford
  • Paul Dinello
  • Ariel Dumas
  • Glenn Eichler
  • Django Gold
  • Gabe Gronli
  • Barry Julien
  • Daniel Kibblesmith
  • Matt Lappin
  • Michael Pielocik
  • Tom Purcell
  • Kate Sidley
  • Jen Spyra
  • Brian Stack
  • John Thibodeaux

 

Jimmy Kimmel Live

  • Head writers: Gary Greenberg and Molly McNearney
  • Tony Barbieri
  • John Bines
  • Joelle Boucai
  • Gonzalo Cordova
  • Devin Field
  • Josh Halloway
  • Jesse Joyce
  • Bess Kalb
  • Jonathan Kimmel
  • Sal Iacono
  • Eric Immerman
  • CeCe Pleasants
  • Danny Ricker
  • Joe Strazzullo

 

Conan

  • Head writer: Matt O’Brien
  • José Arroyo
  • Dan Cronin
  • Andres du Bouchet
  • Jessie Gaskell
  • Michael Gordon
  • Brian Kiley
  • Laurie Kilmartin
  • Rob Kutner
  • Todd Levin
  • Levi MacDougall
  • Conan O’Brien
  • Andy Richter
  • Frank Smiley
  • Mike Sweeney

 

The Daily Show with Trevor Noah

  • Head writer: Zhubin Parang
  • Senior Writer: Daniel Radosh
  • Dan Amira
  • David Angelo
  • Devin Delliquanti
  • Zach DiLanzo
  • Josh Johnson
  • David Kibuuka
  • Matt Koff
  • Dan McCoy
  • Trevor Noah
  • Joseph Opio
  • Lauren Sarver Means
  • Kat Radley

 

The Opposition with Jordan Klepper

  • Head writer: Owen Parsons
  • Kristen Acimovic
  • Russ Armstrong
  • Ian Berger
  • River Clegg
  • Chelsea Davison
  • Chelsea Devantez
  • Pia Glenn
  • Jordan Klepper
  • Asher Perlman
  • Justin Tyler
  • Steve Waltien
  • Seth Weitberg
  • Keisha Zollar

 

Late Night with Seth Meyers

  • Jermaine Affonso
  • Alex Baze
  • Bryan Donaldson
  • Sal Gentile (A Closer Look writing supervised by)
  • Matt Goldich
  • Dina Gusovsky
  • Jenny Hagel
  • Allison Hord
  • Mike Karnell
  • John Lutz
  • Seth Meyers
  • Ian Morgan
  • Seth Reiss (writing supervised by)
  • Amber Ruffin
  • Mike Scollins
  • Mike Shoemaker
  • Ben Warheit

 

The Late Late Show with James Corden

  • James Corden
  • Rob Crabbe
  • Lawrence Dai
  • Dicky Eagan
  • Nate Fernald
  • Lauren Greenberg
  • Ian Karmel
  • John Kennedy
  • Jared Logan
  • James Longman
  • Jared Moskowitz
  • Tim Siedell
  • Benjamin Stout
  • Nedaa Sweiss
  • Louis Waymouth
  • Ben Winston

NOTE: Neither Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live nor Viceland’s Desus and Mero list any credited writers.

 

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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