Time may have passed, but Tracee Ellis Ross is still bitter about the lack of attention one of her most well-known roles got. Keep reading to find out what’s going on and why she is calling some late-night TV racist.
Tracee Ellis Ross On TV
Most recently, Tracee Ellis Ross is known for starring on the hit show Black-ish. She played Dr. Rainbow “Bow” Johnson for all 8 seasons of the show. The series ran from 2014-2022. However, that’s not where she got her start. In fact, she was on another TV show long before that one. Fans may be familiar with her well-known role on the show Girlfriends.
Girlfriends followed the lives of four black women living in LA as they went through all the ups and downs of life. This includes dating, careers, and friendship. The show was pretty successful, running for 172 episodes. It was on for eight years, and Tracee was part of that. She played Joan Clayton. Joan also just so happens to be the main character of the show.
So, needless to say, she’s pretty passionate about the show, even if it did end nearly 20 years ago. However, that passion has led her to start asking some questions.
Never Getting The Attention They Deserved
Apparently, Girlfriends was very successful. So much so that it even ended up getting a spin-off. However, they never really got the public attention they deserved People reports.
Recently, Tracee talked about this. Specifically, how there were no “talk shows, no Tonight Show, no David Letterman, no Emmys — had never been to the Emmys.”
Of course, everyone knows that when a show or movie does well, the actors win awards and go to all the late-night shows. However, that never happened for Tracee despite her success. In fact, Jay Leno didn’t even credit her work at all.
“We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something,” he said when asked about having her on the show.
Of course, this was horrible, leaving Tracee to wonder what more they could want from her.
“I was like, I remember thinking, ‘What?’ ” she says. “Like, what else do you have to get? I don’t know.”
Other Shows Getting Attention
That’s not all, though. Tracee also recalls another show getting more attention with a quarter of the viewership. That led her to believe that perhaps this could all be due to racism.
“I remember seeing him on the show, and I was so confused,” she says about a Monk star. “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?’ I’m not sure how to — how do you categorize it? I don’t know what it is.”
Did you watch Girlfriends? Do you think Tracee Ellis Ross has a good point? Sound off in the comments below. Come back to TV Shows Ace for more updates on all of your favorite TV stars.
Haley is a recent IU grad with a degree in journalism and apparel merchandising. She loves to indulge her guilty pleasures by watching or writing about reality TV. In her free time, you can find her wandering around IKEA looking for cool furniture or playing with her cat Bagel.