Tracee Ellis Ross is revisiting one of the most frustrating contradictions of her Girlfriends years. She was leading a long-running network sitcom, yet says she still could not get booked on some of television’s biggest late-night shows.
During an Aug. 13 appearance on Trevor Noah’s What Now? podcast, Ross recalled receiving no invitations from The Tonight Show during Jay Leno’s tenure or from David Letterman’s show while she starred as Joan Clayton. As Page Six reported, she remembered the response from the Leno-era show as, “We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something.”
Her reaction decades later remains essentially the same: What else was she supposed to get? Girlfriends ran for eight seasons from 2000 to 2008, yet Ross says its longevity and audience did not translate into the mainstream late-night and awards recognition she saw other television stars receiving.
Ross has told versions of the story before, but her latest retelling adds a pointed question. After recalling that Monk star Tony Shalhoub appeared on Leno while Girlfriends was being overlooked, Ross wondered aloud whether racism was behind the disparity.
The ‘Tonight Show’ Response Left Ross Asking What More She Needed
Ross told Noah that the response made little sense to her while Girlfriends was still on the air. She was already the lead of a primetime network comedy, yet the message she remembers receiving treated that accomplishment as insufficient.
“As a matter of fact, I have a story,” Ross said. “It was Jay Leno, and I had Girlfriends, and the comment was, ‘We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something.’” Ross remembered wondering, “Get what? What else do you have to get?”
In a 2023 Variety interview, Ross specifically said it was Leno’s talent person who told her publicist, “We love Tracee. Call us when she gets a role that we care about.” She again identified the show’s talent-booking operation when discussing the experience with Conan O’Brien in 2024.
Ross Compared the Snub With ‘Monk’ and Asked Whether Race Was the Difference
Ross told Noah she specifically remembered seeing Tony Shalhoub appear on Leno while starring in Monk. According to Ross, Monk had roughly a quarter of Girlfriends’ viewership at the time, leaving her confused about what standard was keeping her and her show outside that circle of exposure. “I don’t understand. Is it viewership?” Ross recalled wondering.
Unable to make sense of the difference, she raised another possibility: “Is it just racism?” Noah offered his own perspective on the disparity. Growing up in South Africa, he said, he watched shows such as Girlfriends, Friends, Family Matters and Full House without the hierarchy he later encountered in the United States. Ross responded that Girlfriends had gained more recognition for its significance in hindsight than it received while originally airing.
The awards record illustrates part of what Ross was describing. According to the Television Academy, Girlfriends received just one Primetime Emmy nomination during its eight-season run: a 2003 nomination for Donald A. Morgan, ASC, for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series.
Ross told Noah that she did not attend the Emmys until her later work on Black-ish. Her first Primetime Emmy acting nomination came in 2016 for playing Rainbow Johnson, and she ultimately received five lead-actress nominations for the role.
Ross Has Been Telling the Late-Night Story for Years
In a 2018 Vanity Fair interview, Ross said she had assumed starring on a successful show for eight years would lead to appearances with Letterman, Leno or other major talk-show hosts, but those opportunities never materialized.
“After being the lead on a show for eight years that did incredibly well, I thought perhaps the seas might part and I would have my choice and my pick of the litter,” she said at the time. “No, that didn’t happen.”