“It’s true that there are a lot more shows with people of color - particularly African Americans at the top of the call sheet now - than there probably have been in the last 10 years,” said Andrew McCaskill, Nielsen’s senior VP communications and multicultural marketing. More recently, “Empire” became a pop-culture phenomenon, and while that show has a predominantly black audience (63%), its numbers were so big that it hit the mainstream hard and provided “further evidence,” the Nielsen report says, “of a cultural recalibration in which black voices increasingly are heard.” The move toward more inclusive programming took a while to take hold, but hits like “Scandal” finally reminded programmers that diverse leads can be good for business. READ MORE: Most-Watched Television Networks: Ranking 2016’s Winners and Losers That gave networks a bit of wiggle room to take more chances, which included more-diverse casting. After countless summits and hearings, the broadcasters pledged to try harder, but it took another decade for those promises to come to fruition.Īlso, by that point, audience fragmentation got to the point where shows didn’t need to attract a broad viewership in order to be a big success. That segregation eventually caused controversy, as major networks looked a lot less multicultural in comparison. By 1997, Fox, The WB and UPN aired 16 of the 20 shows featuring African-American casts in primetime - shows like “Martin,” “Living Single,” “Moesha,” “Malcolm and Eddie,” “The Parent ‘Hood” and “The Jamie Foxx Show.” Smaller networks like Fox, The WB, and UPN realized they could grow faster by targeting African-Americans, an audience that overindexes on television consumption.īy the late ’90s, the complexion of primetime had shifted. That changed with the rise of cable and audience fragmentation. Forty years ago, networks broke the color barrier with series like “The Jeffersons” and “Good Times,” and then “The Cosby Show” became the biggest TV series of the ’80s. “And then you get mad that that should be fascinating, you know, because we’re just telling stories about humans.” Franklin Cover, Sherman Hemsley, and Roxie Roker in “The Jeffersons” CBS-TV/REX/ShutterstockĪ return to shows with African-American casts attracting broad audiences is a big deal. “When we first saw that so much of our audience was non-black, we were like, ‘Wow, that’s so fascinating,'” said “Insecure” executive producer Prentice Penny. No Wonder Everyone Is Licensing Shows to Netflixīoth shows highlight the black experience in America, but also tell relatable stories about something everyone can relate to: Trying to fit in.
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