Late-Night/Comedy-Variety Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pledge

A Statement from Supervisory Writers in Late-Night and Comedy-Variety Television

As hosts, showrunners, executive producers, and head writers of late-night and comedy-variety television, we commit to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion in our industry – not only as a matter of social justice, but with the understanding that the continued vitality and relevance of our work is dependent on hiring, empowering, retaining, developing, and promoting diverse talent, and on ensuring that our work onscreen and off reflects the racial diversity of our country and audience.

Though shows vary in staffing, structure, and schedule, the issues in this industry are systemic and the challenges facing Black, Indigenous, and writers of color must be addressed at every show. As writers with authority and power in this system, we must maintain a common level of commitment to this work and must uphold a certain ethic of behavior. To that end, we recognize and commit that:

• Traditional pipelines into late-night and comedy-variety television are historically overwhelmingly white, and it is, therefore, insufficient to rely solely upon them when making hiring decisions. As supervisory writers, it is on us to ensure that job openings reach diverse applicants: both writers new to the field, as well as the experienced BIPOC applicants who are already working in the industry. We will look for applicants in more diverse spaces than the traditional set of colleges, universities, and comedy spaces and we will expand our existing networks by seeking recommendations from a broader and more diverse group of writers, networks, and lists. We will also work to improve pipelines into the industry over the long term by finding opportunities to provide industry insight and feedback to writers working to break into the industry, and by prioritizing diverse hiring at all levels and in all departments.
• Packets are a useful but imperfect tool, in that the writing of a packet is influenced by whether a writer has significant industry connections, personal/professional responsibilities, and/or a perspective that is less common in current writers’ rooms. As supervisory writers, we will therefore design packets with the goal of leveling the playing field between writers such that they are judged only on their talent and potential contribution to the room (for example: keeping the packet reasonable; providing sample formatting or research; or allowing writers to submit supplemental material). We also understand that the reading of a packet can inherently be influenced by the unconscious biases of those doing the reading, and as supervisory writers, it is our responsibility to put mechanisms in place to ensure that packets with language, tone, or cultural references unfamiliar to the reader are not discounted on that basis and that applicants’ work is judged on its own merit.
• Historically, there has been a sink-or-swim culture in late-night and comedy-variety television that can disproportionately impact BIPOC writers, so as supervisory writers we will give regular feedback, create informal and formal mechanisms for orienting new writers, and provide our staff with proactive training and/or exposure to the process of making the show. Implementing these strategies is to the benefit of all writers as our aim is for members of our writing teams to have the skills and the opportunities necessary to succeed at our shows and in the industry.
• As supervisory writers, it is our job to create working environments that are safe, respectful, and free from retaliation and retribution. Writers must be confident that we will address any behavior on staff that prohibits the maintenance of such an environment, and that they will be taken seriously when raising concerns about issues in the workplace (including concerns about content that may be racially or culturally offensive). Ultimately, though, the single most effective strategy in creating a positive room culture is in having a diverse writing staff at all levels; as such, BIPOC writers not only need to be hired, but also need to be retained, developed, and empowered at both the staff and supervisory levels.

These commitments are just a start to a long process. 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.

If you are a supervisor in Comedy-Variety and want to add your name to the pledge, please contact WGAE Business Agent Michelle Kuchinsky at mkuchinsky@wgaeast.org.

Signed,

An Endorsement from Staff Writers in Late-Night and Comedy-Variety Television

Late-Night and Comedy-Variety television has been a fundamental part of our audience’s lives for almost 80 years, but the writers’ rooms have not always fully and accurately represented our viewership.  The more that our rooms are representative of and speak to the public, the more likely viewers will tune in to hear from us again.  In order to speak authentically to our diverse audience, late-night and comedy-variety television writers’ rooms need to reflect that diversity.

As the writers of these series, we support the commitment signed by supervisory writers and firmly believe that it will benefit not only our workplaces but also the shows that we create together.

WGAE or WGAW Staff Writers in Comedy-Variety can add their name to the endorsement here (external – opens in a new window).