Tracee Ellis Ross has revisited what she sees as a major slight during the eight-year run of Girlfriends, questioning why she and the hit sitcom received so little attention from major late-night television programs.
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Ross discussed the experience during an appearance on Trevor Noah’s What Now? podcast. She said Girlfriends, which ran from 2000 to 2008, never secured appearances on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno or David Letterman’s late-night program. She also noted that she had never attended the Emmys during the sitcom’s run.
Ross recalled one particularly pointed exchange involving Leno. She said his team told her, “We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something.” The response left her confused because she already starred in a successful television series.
Tracee Ellis Ross Felt “Very Segregated”
The actress then compared Girlfriends with Monk, a USA Network series led by Tony Shalhoub. Ross said Monk drew roughly a quarter of Girlfriends’ viewership yet still received the kind of late-night exposure that her show did not.
That disparity led Ross to question whether racism contributed to the lack of recognition. She did not present racism as a proven explanation, but she said she struggled to identify another reason for the difference in treatment.
“I remember seeing [Monk star Tony Shalhoub] on the show, and I was so confused,” she said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t understand. Is it viewership?’ And the only thing you can boil it down to, you’re like, ‘Is it just racism?’ I’m not sure how to — how do you categorize it? I don’t know what it is.”
Ross said the industry eventually acknowledged the show’s importance, but she believes that recognition came largely “in hindsight.”
Girlfriends centered on four Black women navigating friendship, careers and relationships in Los Angeles. Ross starred as Joan Clayton alongside Golden Brooks, Persia White and Jill Marie Jones. The series developed a lasting audience and later gained greater recognition for its cultural impact.
Her own career also continued to grow after Girlfriends. She later starred as Rainbow Johnson on Black-ish, a role that brought her six Emmy nominations.