Sherri Shepherd Has Personal Reason for Wanting New Black Woman on ‘SNL’: ‘It Is An Emergency’

Sherri Shepherd has a personal reason for wanting a Black female cast member on Saturday Night Live: “When I co-hosted The View, there was no Black woman on the show to play me.”

Back in Shepherd’s View days, it was a problem. Kenan Thompson had to put on a wig to play Whoopi Goldberg, before eventually insisting that he was done being the show’s only comic capable of playing Black women. “Then they had the nerve when Tracy Morgan guest-hosted — Tracy Morgan played me on the daggone show,” she remembered this week on her talk show. “They had Tracy Morgan in that old, tired shake-and-go wig, looking like he sits third row at church and serves the dinners after service. He still got a five o’clock shadow.”

Now that Ego Nwodim has left the show, it could be time for Morgan to dust off the wig. “She was their only Black female cast member, so now there are no Black women on SNL,” Shepherd complained. “So what do I say to SNL? Y’all gotta hurry up, and you gotta find somebody. This is a break glass in case of an emergency. It is an emergency.”

How did Saturday Night Live find itself in this boat again? The show was pressured into hiring Sasheer Zamata mid-season in 2014 as a response to backlash over the lack of Black women on the show. SNL’s history on that front was atrocious — only four Black women (Yvonne Hudson, Danitra Vance, Ellen Cleghorne and Maya Rudolph) had been cast members through the show’s first 38 seasons, with only Rudolph given much to do. SNL has done marginally better in the past decade, hiring Leslie Jones, Nwodim and Punkie Johnson, but Nwodim’s surprise exit before the season left the cast without a Black woman once again.

It didn’t have to be this way. During the SNL off-season, the rumor was that women of color were a priority when searching for new cast members. It was surprising, then, that no Black women were among the five new hires. It wasn’t surprising at all that 60 percent of the new kids were white guys.

If Lorne Michaels once again feels like he needs to make a mid-season move, he’s got a Black female comic waiting in the wings — new writer Jo Sunday was reportedly a finalist to make the cast. Based on that trajectory (spending a year on the writing staff is how Bowen Yang, Tina Fey and Colin Jost got their starts), there’s a good chance Sunday will be a featured player next year regardless.

In the meantime, expect criticism from Shepherd and others. “There are lots of talented Black female comics that you can cast on SNL,” she insisted. “If you go to any comedy club or improv place, they are out there waiting for this opportunity.”