The Late Night Sausage Fest.

[Xithras]

1. Years ago, Joan Rivers explained the problem this way...

For those of you too young to remember, Joan Rivers was the permanent guest host for The Tonight Show when Carson was hosting it, and later a short lived late night show of her own. She was probably the most successful female late night TV host ever.

Rivers said that the problem with getting female hosts into late night TV is that late night TV producers tend to choose their show hosts from the ranks of stand up comics. She pointed out that there are relatively few female stand up comics compared to the number of male stand up comics, and even fewer who aren't "shock" comediennes and will appeal to a wide audience. So why aren't there more female stand up comediennes? Because American's don't buy tickets to see them at their local comedy clubs. She said that it isn't a "Hollywood problem", it's an "America problem". If a female comedienne can't be successful at the local comedy clubs, she'll never go national and won't ever have a shot at top jobs like late night TV.