Tracee Ellis Ross Questions If Racism Led To ‘Girlfriends’ Being Overlooked Despite Strong Ratings, Calls Out Late-Night TV Hosts

Tracee Ellis Ross is reflecting on the lack of mainstream recognition she and Girlfriends received during the hit sitcom’s run — and questioning whether racism played a role.

via: People

While speaking to Trevor Noah about why the sitcom never got the “mainstream acclaim it deserved” during the Aug. 13 episode of his What Now? podcast, the 53-year-old actress recalled television being “very segregated” at the time. 

While Ross said the show — which aired from 2000 to 2008 — has since been given its fair share of recognition “in hindsight,” she made it clear that it “certainly didn’t have it back then.”

In fact, she said that, during her time portraying Joan Clayton on the show, she never got any “talk shows, no Tonight Show, no David Letterman, no Emmys — had never been to the Emmys.”

The Black-ish actress went on to recall one occasion in which Jay Leno, who hosted The Tonight Show from 1992 to 2009 and again from 2010 to 2014, allegedly said, “We love Tracee. Call us when she gets something.”

“I was like, I remember thinking, ‘What?’ ” she continued. “Like, what else do you have to get? I don’t know.”

In addition to allegedly being overlooked by late-night television, Ross couldn’t help but notice that another show, which she noted wasn’t nearly as popular as Girlfriends at the time, was getting the recognition she felt she was being denied.

“I remember, specifically, the show Monk,” she told Noah. “That show had a quarter of our viewership. A quarter of our viewership.”

“I remember seeing him on the show, and I was so confused,” she continued of Monk star Tony Shalhoub. “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.”

Reps for Jay Leno, David Letterman, NBC and CBS did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment. 

After running for eight seasons, Girlfriends aired its final episode on Feb. 11, 2008. Since then, Ross has been nominated for five consecutive Primetime Emmys for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for her role as Rainbow Johnson in Black-ish. 

She also earned a Daytime Emmy nomination for her travel show, Solo Traveling with Tracee Ellis Ross, earlier this year.

“I became a seasoned actress,” Ross recalled of her time on Girlfriends, making her gratitude for the sitcom apparent. “You know, 173 episodes, you learn how to do it, and it’s different from movies but it’s a real thing. You learn, you become a veteran. I had an opportunity to do 173 episodes of a show — it’s no joke.”