Update 4/7/09: Well, there goes another one. Goodbye to Kal Penn’s Dr. Kutner. He’s moving on to another House, one of far greater prominence.
Update 2/18/09: Yesterday’s article in the LA Times reports on the diversity phenomenon in television… While the Times may have a different definition of “lead character” than I do, the message is still the same: Diverse characters just aren’t found in scripted programming these days.
On my way to work on Monday, I told a co-worker that I had seen He’s Just Not That Into You over the weekend. “It looks cute,” my co-worker said, “But I don’t want to see it on principle… it’s too white. Where are all the minorities?”
Let’s see: in the movie, all the primary characters were… white. All the couplings… white. All the love connections… white. There were a few gay men who were minorities, and Justin Long did make out with a black girl, but other than that, the movie was one long, bad, whitewashed chick flick.
Strangely, even as a minority myself, I didn’t notice that the cast was all white before I went to the theater. However, my co-worker’s stand resounded with me (she, by the way, is white). Our country is supposed to be a “melting pot” — our minority populations are growing — and oh, our President is black. So why is Hollywood so white?
Entertainment Weekly ran a story a few months ago about diversity in entetainment: “Why is TV so white?”
There was a time when diversity seemed to come naturally to prime time. The social consciousness of the ’70s spawned successful sitcoms like The Jeffersons, Good Times, and Sanford and Son; the ’80s brought living-in-harmony comedy Diff’rent Strokes and the ultimate breakthrough TV family on The Cosby Show…
After nearly 10 years of working with diversity reps and outreach programs, the networks still primarily solve the problem by sprinkling nonwhite actors into white-led shows — often as a comedic sidekick or in guy-who-helps-the-main-guy-solve-a-crime roles.
So I decided to take a look at the current TV lineup to see just how white it actually is. I went through all the network shows in primetime, excluding all reality/news programming. For the shows that I didn’t personally watch, the litmus test was whether the show’s website included pictures of diverse characters on their main page.
From there, I color-coded all the shows that featured the following:(1)
Based on thorough scouring of show websites, and operating under the assumption that some cartoon characters were meant to be white, what I found confirmed the EW report and my co-worker’s concerns.(2) (Of course, I don’t have 90 hours a week to carefully watch each show for its contribution to diversity, so feel free to email me with anything I’ve missed or gotten wrong.)
Out of 90 hours of primetime programming per week, there are 32.5 hours dedicated to reality TV, news, or Sunday night movies. Of the remaining 57.5 hours of scripted series:
So, out of the 57.5 hours of scripted programming, 76% of this programming features all-white leading casts. Only 4 shows have minority lead characters, and two of them air on Friday nights on the CW.
Finally, just some parting thoughts on diversity in entertainment:
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Derek and Meredith, Jim and Pam, Kate and Jack/Sawyer… We’ve seen interracial couples flow seamlessly through the Grey’s Anatomy plotlines, but how many other shows have done it? Even in the diverse ensemble casts, why does the main love story/central relationship in the show always feature only one race? I’m not talking about flings, I’m talking about the Ross and Rachels… makes me wonder.
- The lack of diversity isn’t limited to network TV either… some of the hottest shows on cable (Burn Notice, Damages, The Closer) and pay TV (Entourage, Californication, Big Love) are lily white.
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A show featuring a minority family has not earned broad mass appeal in more than a decade. Has something systemically changed in our audience today? Are we more or less racially polarized? How would the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or The Cosby Show do today? How would The George Lopez Show or The Bernie Mac Show have done then?
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Will we ever see a show with an Asian lead on network TV?
I would disagree with a few shows:
Big Bang Theory (Raj)
House (Cuttner and Foreman)
Bones (Cam and Angela)
Dollhouse (Boyd and Sierra)
Criminal Minds (Morgan)
Numb3rs (Amita, Sinclair, Betancourt, and Liz)
It could be we have different definitions of primary characters, but all characters I mentioned are in each episode with developed backgrounds and personalities and occasional story lines that focus on their character.
This topic is quite trendy on the Internet at the moment. What do you pay the most attention to when choosing what to write ?
Supernatural is the whitest show i´ve ever seen. Last season we have two new characters, two angels who happen to be black and white. The black actor did an amazing job, the other actor, white and gorgeous as the rest of the cast, portrayed his character as a zombie (maybe because he was following directions). Who was chosen to be a regular?
Not only that, i love supernatural, but i have to stop watching, because i am part of two minority groups, and the character that “is different from normal” is portrayed as a dumb, vulnerable, easy to manipulate 27 year old guy, who is unable to make a good decision by himself and always fails in everything he tries to do (A LOSER). Meanwhile, the “normal” character of the show, who is full of prejudices, who constantly compels the other character to pretend to be “normal”, to deny his identity, at the end is always right in what he thinks.
Apparently, the “not normal” character is wrong in trying to discover his true self, he has good intentions, but lets be honest, that poor bastard is a walking danger that has to be watched by someone with criteria, someone “normal”.
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It’s unbearable lately (esp since Obama election) the over-diversity on TV shows, movies, commercials, the minority and diversity percentage seen is much higher than what it should be, as America is mostly White, makes me think i’m no longer in America.
It doesn’t matter that there are less non-whites in America than whites. It doesn’t change the fact that they are still here. Minority characters on television and film are still very underrepresented. Not to mention the lead character on television shows is almost always white. This is not reality. Say whatever you want, but the diversity percentage in the media is not that high at all.
love your site
if there were no TV shows half the world would have been living on anti-depressants.
worked, thanks
This has to be the best tv show ever…
Here’s a good question: why is it required that White tv shows have a certain amount of minority characters, but Black tv shows don’t have to represent any Whites at all on their shows? What’s that all about? I’m tired of seeing token Blacks in shows. I want to see shows based around a plot regardless of race. Someone mentioned Supernatural, which is about two White brothers (no pun intended). Why does Supernatural have to put Blacks or other minorities in supporting roles on the show? What does it do for the story line? If you’re for those roles, then the same should apply to the Black tv shows: they should be forced to have “x” amount of White supporting actors on them.
I disagree because White have had the lead and supportive roles for decades, in movies and television. Only through pressure were minorities giving a shot in these industries. Today it seems to be reverting back to the days when Whites ruled the airwaves and movies. As a black, I can’t help but notice this trend. We have been reduced to very, very few lead, but mostly, token roles. What about Asians and Hispanics being excluded also from lead and supportive roles. Even in Hawaii 50 the lead is White.
So you would force mainstream shows to include Black cast members, but allow minority shows to continue to have no White characters? You do realize that that’s why shows like Star Trek would kill off the Black guy first and why shows like South Park make fun of it with characters like Token Black, right? It’s annoying. Blacks have an enormous amount of purchasing power yet rely on laws to force Whites to include them in mainstream television programs. There are plenty of network shows with minority characters because they were designed around the story, and those actors played the part the best. You really want them to be forced to include people that aren’t good for the show? I’m sick of seeing shows that are supposed to have a realistic plot or even reality shows like MTV’s “The Real World” that has to have, 1 Black, 1 Asian, 1 Hispanic, 1 Jew, 1 Catholic, 1 Lesbian, 1 Gay guy, and 1 Straight guy because that’s CLEARLY how 8 people would pick to live together. It’s total crap. It makes for bad programming. If Minorities feel they should be included in our programming then they should also be forced out of their ethnocentric ways and have to have Whites on their shows. Not by choice, but by force of the same stupid rules.
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I agree with the above comments. I don’t mind diversity in TV as long as it’s not or feels “forced.” Also, it’s because most writers are white so of course they write characters that are similar to them.