Hundreds Of Late-Night Comedy-Variety Writers Pledge To Support WGA Diversity Initiative

deadline.com:

More than 250 writers have signed or endorsed a WGA pledge to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in late-night comedy-variety writers rooms.

The pledge calls for concrete steps to ensure that the hiring pipeline is open and accessible to BIPOC writers; to address unconscious biases in the review process of writing packets; to create informal and formal mechanisms to support BIPOC writers’ ability to succeed in traditionally white writers rooms; and to ensure that diverse voices are heard, supported and elevated. “These commitments are just a start to a long process,” the pledge, released Tuesday, states. “We must create an industry in which diversity is not an aspirational goal but is a fundamental trait.

Our industry will not be a diverse, equitable, and inclusive industry until it is that by default – until the pipelines into the industry and the hiring processes, room cultures, and supervisory structures at shows together create an environment in which we do not hire diverse writers onto writing staffs, but rather hire writers onto diverse writing staffs.” More than 200 writers have endorsed the pledge, which was signed by more than 50 hosts, showrunners, executive producers and head writers on such shows as Saturday Night Live, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Inside Amy Schumer, Desus & Mero and How to With John Wilson.

Signers include John Oliver, Amy Schumer, Samantha Bee, Trevor Noah, Kal Penn, Amber Ruffin, Charlamagne tha God, Adam Conover, The Kid Mero, Desus Nice and John Wilson.