It’s pretty obvious that female hosts aren’t a top priority when it comes to late night. Actually, Samantha Bee is the only woman featured in the lineup of men, which includes Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, James Corden, Seth Meyers, Conan O’Brien, Trevor Noah and John Oliver.
“I’m lonely here,” Bee put it simply in an interview with the “Today Show.”
Well, as it turns out, Bee could have had some company with actress and comedian Jane Lynch, who revealed to HuffPost that she pitched her own program to CBS when they were looking to hire for “The Late Late Show.” (The job obviously went to James Corden, whom Lynch is a big fan of, FYI.)
“I will say that CBS did ask me to come in and pitch them something for late night, before they got James Corden, and I went in with a dumb idea and I kind of regret it.”
- Jane Lynch
During a Build Series interview, Lynch told us that she’d “love” to host a late-night show, it’s just that women aren’t chosen for the positions.
“I’m a little long in the tooth, I think, in the wrong sex right now, but that’s OK. If it were offered and it looked like it was going to be fun [I’d do it],” Lynch said of the possibility. “I will say that CBS did ask me to come in and pitch them something for late night, before they got James Corden, and I went in with a dumb idea and I kind of regret it. I said, ‘You know, it’s late night, let’s just have a five-piece band, no studio audience and maybe one or two guests. Maybe even people [who are] not celebrities. Maybe somebody who’s just interesting.’ And their eyes were glossing over as I was telling them and I wish I said, ’I have an idea! We’ll do like “The Graham Norton Show.”′ And I would be working at CBS late night right now!”
Still, Lynch is very impressed with the hosts currently airing in the evening, expressing her particular interest in “Late Night with Seth Meyers.” Although she gets a little wary of sharing her political ideals, she respects those who have the guts to take down the current administration.
“I’ll tweet politically every once and a while ― you just got to be careful, for me anyway. I’d rather sit around and talk to people without a microphone about what I think is going on and what I’m afraid of. In a way, I don’t want to get involved in that in a public way,” she said. “But I’m really grateful ... I think Seth Meyers is just killing it. He just stepped up, if you get a chance to see, his ‘Closer Look’ [segment], which he’s doing more of. It used to be once every couple of weeks and now almost every night he’s doing a ‘Closer Look.’”
For now, Lynch is happy to represent women hosts in the current game show revival. Believe it or not, she is, in fact, the only woman hosting one of these shows on network television: NBC’s “Hollywood Game Night.” (Good news: “So You Think You Can Dance” host Cat Deeley does front “Big Star Little Star,” on cable network USA.)
″‘Hollywood Game Night’ might have started this revival, but there’s still no more female hosts, I’m the only one. There’s just kind of an inability to open up the mind, I think, to females hosting things and I think the same thing with late night,” the Emmy-winning host said. “Samantha Bee is in there and she’s doing such a great job, but I love what the guys are doing so I have a hard time saying, ‘Why did we have to go across the pond to get James Corden?’ Because he’s awesome. He’s really good. Trevor Noah, too. He’s wonderful.”
Let’s get Lynch on late night, shall we?
For more with Jane Lynch, watch her full Build interview below:
Before You Go
