\n<\/p>\n
\n\tSherri Shepherd is calling out Saturday Night Live<\/em> for its lack of diversity, urging the late-night sketch comedy series to hire another Black woman quickly following Ego Nwodim\u2019s departure ahead of season 51.<\/p>\n \n\tThe actress and comedian said on Monday\u2019s episode of her daytime talk show, Sherri<\/em>, that it\u2019s \u201cso important\u201d to \u201chave representation on that show.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I watched\u00a0Saturday Night Live<\/em>\u00a0this weekend, I did notice something was missing: Ego Nwodim left the show,\u201d Shepherd said. \u201cShe was their only Black female cast member, so now there are no Black women on\u00a0SNL<\/em>. So what do I say to\u00a0SNL<\/em>? Y\u2019all gotta hurry up and you gotta find somebody, this is a break glass in case of an emergency. It is an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tLast month, Nwodim announced that she had decided to leave the show after seven seasons. \u201cI am immensely grateful to Lorne for the opportunity, to my castmates, the writers, and the crew for their brilliance, support and friendship,\u201d she wrote at the time. \u201cWeek after week on that stage taught me more than I could have ever imagined, and I will carry those memories (and that laughter) with me always.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShepherd went on to point out why representation is particularly important on a show like SNL<\/em> that centers on parodying other people.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhen I cohosted\u00a0The View<\/em>, there was no Black woman on the show to play me,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThere was no Black woman to even play\u00a0Whoopi [Goldberg]\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Kenan Thompson\u00a0would play Whoopi at the table when they spoofed us! Then there was no Black woman to play me, so I was never sitting at the table.\u201d Shepherd co-hosted The View<\/em> from\u00a02007 to 2014.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cThen they had the nerve, when\u00a0Tracy Morgan\u00a0guest hosted, Tracy Morgan played me on the daggone show,\u201d she continued with a laugh, referencing the sketch during SNL<\/em>\u2018s 34th season in 2009. \u201cThey had Tracy Morgan in that old, tired Shake-N-Go wig looking like he sits third row at church and serves the dinner after service. He\u2019s even still got a five o\u2019clock shadow!\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tWhile Shepherd said she understands the NBC show is still \u201ctrying to get your bearings\u201d with Nwodim leaving so shortly before the season 51 premiere, she also reiterated the urgency to get another Black woman hired.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cWhat I don\u2019t like hearing is \u2018we can\u2019t find anybody, we can\u2019t find anybody.\u2019 There are lots of talented Black female comics that you can cast on\u00a0SNL<\/em>,\u201d she added. \u201cIf you go to any comedy club or improv place, they are out there waiting for this opportunity, getting ready for this very opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tShepherd even took a moment to recommend a few \u201chysterical\u201d comedians who have appeared on her talk show, including Tacarra Williams, B-Phlat and Yamaneika Saunders, as well as her show\u2019s comedy producer Robin Montague.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cSNL<\/em>, do not disappoint us. You are charged!\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \n\tAhead of SNL<\/em>\u2018s 51st season, the show hired five new castmembers, including Tommy Brennan, Jeremy Culhane, Ben Marshall, Kam Patterson and Veronika Slowikowska. But with Nwodim leaving, this is the first cast to not feature a Black woman castmember for the first time since 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sherri Shepherd is calling out Saturday Night Live for its lack of diversity, urging the late-night sketch comedy series to hire another Black woman quickly following Ego Nwodim\u2019s departure ahead of season 51. The actress and comedian said on Monday\u2019s episode of her daytime talk show, Sherri, that it\u2019s \u201cso important\u201d to \u201chave representation on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26381,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[706,1711,15853,3668,15854,8602,15852,7983,3213,668],"class_list":{"0":"post-26380","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-black","9":"tag-cast","10":"tag-ego","11":"tag-exit","12":"tag-nwodims","13":"tag-shepherd","14":"tag-sherri","15":"tag-snl","16":"tag-urges","17":"tag-woman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/26381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}