Lauren Graham to play a late-night host in far-fetched, completely fictional sitcom

Although, to be fair, NBC stayed out of the most recent round of late-night shake-ups, the network’s newest sitcom venture still feels like a consolation prize knowing that CBS won’t even let a woman guest host The Late Late Show. Called Kate On Later, the show will star Gilmore Girls and Parenthood’s Lauren Graham as Kate, a woman attempting to break into the testosterone-sodden inner chambers of late-night network TV. (Officially, Deadline describes the show as being about “[a woman] who thought her day job was all her life would amount to when an opportunity arises that’s bigger than she ever dreamed possible. But that opportunity means she’s going to have to break one of the last remaining glass ceilings — the world of late-night network television talk shows.”)

Anyway, Kate On Later may not make it past its current script-commitment phase, due to NBC’s recent moves away from scripted comedy. But if it does, the show will be co-written by Graham and He’s Just Not That Into You’s Liz Tuccillo. Kate On Later is being executive produced by Ellen DeGeneres, who presumably has some opinions on the current state of women in late night, particularly after a couple of glasses of wine (drunk from Ellen-brand wine glasses, of course).