Well, This is Just Great News for Television

Aisha Tyler is, perhaps, one of the most underrated jack of all comedy trades. The talented actress and author voices Lana on FX’s Archer, hosts the CW’s Whose Line is it Anyway?, is a co-host on CBS’s The Talk and wrote a New York Times best-selling collection of essays called Self-Inflicted Wounds: Heartwarming Tales of Epic Humiliation. And that very book just may make her the household name she so very deserves to be. As reported exclusively by The Hollywood Reporter, CBS television is optioning Self-Inflicted Wounds .

The essays are a collection of stories in which Tyler faced utter embarrassment and failure on her road to success. They’re cringe-worthy, honest, and wholly hilarious. The book was inspired by her massively successful iTunes pocast Girl on Guy, in which Tyler interviewed celebs, comedians, chefs, authors, and everyone in between about their own self-inflicted wounds.

There is no official network attached to the project yet, but no matter where the 30-minute comedy lands, it will be a huge deal. If Tyler stars in the project (which presumably, she will), it will be the ONLY major network comedy starring an African-American woman. Yep, the only one. As it stands there are currently no African-American women starring in a comedy on NBC, ABC, CBS, or FOX.

Even in terms of diversity in co-stars, the results are pretty grim for comedy (and dramas, for that matter). On NBC there’s Donna in Parks and Recreation and Shirley on the soon-to-be defunct Community. You’ve got Mercedes on Glee and Tamra on T he Mindy Project for Fox. For ABC, Toks Olagundoye plays Jackie Joyner-Kersee in the ensemble comedy The Neighbors. Otherwise, I’m not completely sure CBS or ABC knows that African-Americans are funny and should be on television.

So yes, Aisha Tyler’s Self-Inflicted Wounds would inject some much-needed and sorely delayed diversity into major network television. It would also inject some much-needed and sorely delayed humor that isn’t the tired living room sitcom hum-drum that currently pervades the airwaves. Ms. Tyler, welcome. We needed you.