00:00Robyn Thede may not have a second season of her BET late-night show The Rundown to look
00:04forward to, but the future is still bright for the hosting comedian who will be emceeing
00:07the 34th annual Television Critics Association Awards. Says Thede of her former gig,
00:12"...I'm the fourth black woman to host a late-night show. Monique, Whoopi Goldberg and
00:16Wonder Sykes were the only other ones who did it. I will always be super proud of that
00:20because it's not easy." Thede is used to taking things that aren't easy in her stride.
00:24The 38-year-old funny lady grew up in a trailer in Davenport, Iowa, where her family
00:28was on welfare. Says Thede, "...we were different economically, we were different racially.
00:33The only way I dealt with that was just to be funny." And she'll put those comedic skills
00:37to good use on August 4th at the event for the TCA, of which our very own TV critic
00:41Daniel Feinberg is president. Says Thede of her first awards hosting gig,
00:44"...I don't look at this night as a roast of the critics. I think the world will do that
00:48enough to critics. I just want to have fun." Thede worked in entertainment for 10 years
00:52before she was in a writer's room with other women and describes a process of breaking
00:56into the business as difficult. Being called the girl writer in rooms was frustrating
01:01and annoying as hell, she says. Of the first gig where she worked with fellow females,
01:05Thede explains, "...it was on the Queen Latifah show when I was the head writer and hired
01:09other women." When asked by THR's Marissa Guthrie why there aren't more women of color
01:13and women in comedy, Thede responds this way,
01:15"...I do not have an answer and if I was in control it would be nothing but women and
01:20disabled people and Asian people and older people and all sorts of people who don't
01:24get chances to do any of these things." Like many other entertainers, Thede admits that
01:28comedy helps her get through the stress of living in such turbulent times but says,
01:32"...I have tried to balance my comedic outrage. Trump is horrible, but he started his
01:36campaign by saying Mexicans are rapists. He made fun of a disabled reporter. He was
01:40accused of sexual assault. I have no more room for shock when it comes to Trump."
01:44When asked what she will miss most about the rundown, which was canceled by BET on July
01:4825th, Thede's answer is quite sentimental, "...I'll miss employing a bunch of people who
01:52otherwise would never have had a chance to work in late night because they weren't part
01:56of the inner hiring circle that still exists," she says. She then quips,
01:59"...I'll also miss making jokes about Jeff Sessions anytime I want. That was very freeing."
02:04Finally, Thede shares her take on critics and how she's feeling ahead of her first awards
02:08hosting gig.
02:09"...Oh, I love critics," she says. "...they have been historically very kind to me. They've either just
02:13ignored me or given me glowing reviews. I'm looking forward to the TCA's just being a
02:18super self-congratulatory night for me for the critics. Like, why not? The world is making
02:22us all feel bad. Let's just all pat ourselves on the back for 90 minutes and go away in a
02:26cloud of delusion." To read Marissa Guthrie's full interview with Robin Thede, head to THR.com.
02:31For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.
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