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There have been 137 cast members on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” since the comedy show debuted in 1975, but only four have them have been black women. And the last one—Maya Rudolph—left the show in 2007.
The show’s lack of diversity has become a major issue for the Peacock and producer Lorne Michaels, just as “Scandal” star Kerry Washington was prepping to take her turn hosting the Nov. 2 broadcast.
On Friday, the civil rights group ColorOfChange.org called on Michaels directly to address the issue saying that in the years since Rudolph left the cast, he hasn’t found a single new black woman comedian, even though the show “seems committed to aggressively continuing to push images of Black women as incompetent, rude, hypersexual and financially dependent.”
“Frankly, we’re tired of this disrespect,” said ColorOfChange.org Executive Director Rashad Robinson in a letter to Michaels obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
In an interview with the AP, Michaels told the wire service that “it’s not like it’s not a priority for us. It will happen. I’m sure it will happen.”
Two of the black women who were on the show—Danitra Vance and Yvonne Hudson—lasted only one season in the 1980s. Ellen Cleghorne performed with “SNL” from 1991-1995.
In his letter to Michaels, ColorOfChange.org’s Robinson praised the selection of Kerry Washington to host Saturday’s broadcast, but said it was “scandalous” that after the broadcast wraps, there will be no black women on foreseeable future broadcasts.
“SNL” and the broader comedy world have struggled for years to shed the image that they are part of an old [white] boy’s club. There are currently no Hispanics or Asians on “SNL,” although there are three cast members of color, the African-American comedians Jay Pharaoh and Kenan Thompson, and Iranian-American Nasim Pedrad.
Brief Take: Building a diverse cast can be good for business and branding; audiences are more likely to tune when they can identify with the cast members.
Read More: AP, The Hollywood Reporter
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