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Stephen Colbert Half-Apologized For Having One Female Writer On His Show At The Emmys

"Sorry for that, for some reason."

At the 2014 Emmys on Monday, The Colbert Report won Outstanding Variety Series for the second year in a row. When host Stephen Colbert took the stage to accept the award, he congratulated his writing staff for winning Outstanding Writing in a Variety Series at the Creative Arts Emmys last Saturday.

"We want to thank everyone who's not on this stage who worked on the show. Our writers won last week for Writing in a Variety Series. I'm so proud of those guys — and one woman," he said, to tepid applause. "Sorry for that, for some reason," he added with a shrug.

Many on Twitter were disappointed by Colbert's nonchalant joke about the gender gap that persists in Hollywood, both behind and in front of the camera.

"and one woman" is what's wrong with the tv industry. #Emmys

Only one woman writer Colbert? Much sadness.

Story of the Emmys // "Those Guys and One Woman"

Of The Colbert Report's 19 (mostly white) writers, one is female — Meredith Scardino. But sadly, that's the norm. The Writers Guild of America, West published its 2014 Hollywood Writers Report in June, revealing that women made up 27% of TV writers in 2012 and were paid less than 92 cents for every dollar white men earned.

This year, 26% of the Emmy nominees were female, reflecting the lack of diversity in the television industry as a whole, something Colbert seemed complacent over when accepting his award. Still, at least, some of those 26% stood with Colbert when he accepted the Outstanding Variety Series Emmy, including The Colbert Report co-executive producers Meredith Bennett and Emily Lazar and supervising producer Tanya Bracco.

Watch Colbert's acceptance speech in full below:

View this video on YouTube