Tracee Ellis Ross Calls Out David Letterman, Jay Leno for Not Supporting ‘Girlfriends’: ‘Is It Racism?’

Before her time on Black-ish, Tracee Ellis Ross starred for eight seasons on Girlfriends, but the series failed to make a name for itself. Now, the 53-year-old actress is suggesting talk show hosts and “racism” contributed to its mediocre success.

“We certainly didn’t [get the recognition] back then. No talk shows, no Tonight Show, no David Letterman, no Emmys. Had never been to the Emmys,” Ross told Trevor Noah during the August 13 episode of his What Now? With Trevor Noah.

“It was Jay Leno. And I had Girlfriends, and the comment was, ‘We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something,'” she said. “I remember thinking, ‘Get what? What else do you have to get?’ I don’t know. And it just was… ‘We love her,’ but it was not considered.”

The series — which also starred Golden Brooks, Persia White, and Jill Marie Jones — ran from September 2000 to February 2008. Originally on UPN, Girlfriends was moved to The CW in 2006. The series had a cult following, but only ever earned one Emmy nomination for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series.

“The other thing was I remember this. I remember specifically the show Monk [starring Tony Shaloub],” she told Noah, 42. “That show had a quarter of our viewership. And I remember seeing him on [Leno], and I was so confused. 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?’ Like … how do you categorize it?”

Ross went on to star in Black-Ish for eight seasons and earned six Emmy nominations. She reunited with her Girlfriends castmates during a 2019 episode of the ABC sitcom.

“These are women I grew up with and love deeply, and it was easy to tap back into the magic of our chemistry and how much we love each other,” she shared. “It was giggles on top of giggles on top of giggles.”