Back in my freshman year, when I was just finding my place at the Daily Trojan, I wrote an article about women in late-night television — more accurately, the lack of women in late night. The story came after Lilly Singh’s two-season run as a late-night host came to a close, with “A Little Late with Lilly Singh” being canceled by NBC less than two years after its premiere.

She was the first woman in 30 years to host a late-night show on a major television network, the Los Angeles Times reported, although other women have hosted weekly late-night shows or shows on minor channels. She was also the first member of the LGBTQIA+ community to have their own nightly late-night show on a major network.

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As I mentioned in my previous column, “A Little Late” was not great. The monologues often fell flat, there were no popular recurring bits to look forward to and no iconic moments happened to help the show gain traction.

In a September interview with YouTuber Anthony Padilla, Singh provides more context for her experience on the show. She said she often knew her monologue was bad, but the show’s team was understaffed and had fewer resources than the other network late-night shows. Although she shared she has no regrets about the experience, she said she felt a lot of pressure as a bisexual woman of color.

“The reality is, when you look like me, you don’t have the privilege of walking in and reading the teleprompter,” Singh said. “There’s way too many groups of people that are counting on you to represent them. There’s way too many critical eyes on you ready to tear you apart.”

The show was by no means great, but looking through the Rotten Tomatoes reviews, it is clear a lot of the criticisms came from a place of racism and misogyny. Not that Rotten Tomatoes is the be-all and end-all of all media, but the critic scores and audience scores held a 67 percentage point difference.

The other late-night hosts — the men — also have poor episodes, but their shows don’t get canceled. Rolling Stone even called out host Jimmy Fallon’s work environment, yet, following the writer’s strike end, “The Tonight Show” has returned with no issues. 

Late-night shows hosted by women have a long history of cancellations. Joan Rivers — the first woman to host a late-night show — lasted less than a year. Wanda Sykes hosted a weekly show that, again, lasted less than a year. Chelsea Handler had a nightly show on E! that lasted eight seasons, the longest of any woman-hosted late-night show.

Women comedians are constantly facing more barriers and more pushback. For as many strides as the comedy industry has made for inclusion, the truth is women are still put at a disadvantage. It’s the awful truth that when one woman can break her way through, all hope lies with her. The pressure is intense, and this is just another issue Singh had to endure in her tenure.

While I’ve spent time hoping to see another woman make her way to the late-night spotlight, I also considered the implications of being the one woman to do so — and the seemingly impossible expectations.

Since the 2021 “A Little Late” cancellation, late night has once again been a man’s world. Last year, the final episode of “The Late Late Show with James Corden” aired, and a spot for a new network late-night show was open. CBS started the search for its next late-night star to host “After Midnight,” which will premiere sometime next year. It was announced there would finally be another woman on network late night: Taylor Tomlinson.

The stand-up comedian is known for her Netflix specials “Quarter-Life Crisis” (2020) and “Look At You” (2022). At only 30 years old, she is also the youngest host by a good margin. Tomlinson is generally well-received as a comic — “Quarter-Life Crisis” and “Look At You” have 88% and 87% audience scores on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively. 

Still, I anticipate she will face the same pressures as Singh. Most articles covering “After Midnight” lead with the fact she will be the only woman host. It’s huge, it’s exciting and yes, I understand I am contributing to the problem. I want to celebrate her, and I want to celebrate the win for women in comedy. But I don’t want Tomlinson to be labeled “the woman late-night host.”

Having a woman host is shaking up the late-night scene — but that is a depressing fact. A woman host should not be groundbreaking, and it certainly should not happen just to say there is one. Tomlinson deserves an equal amount of respect as her late-night peers. Because that’s what they are: peers.

Hopefully, “After Midnight” will escape the “A Little Late” fate and receive the proper support, promotion and love that Singh deserved.

I’m rooting for Tomlinson, a lot. Not just to see a woman in late night, but simply just to see a well-deserving comic achieve a much-deserved level of success.

Kimberly Aguirre is a junior writing about comedy. Her column, “Comic Relief,” runs every other Friday. She is also an associate managing editor at the Daily Trojan.