(Los Angeles) TV shows that reflect America’s growing racial and ethnic diversity are finding favor with industry watchers and viewers, according to a 2019-20 TV season study released Tuesday.
Despite the pandemic that has plagued Hollywood production, varying degrees of growth in hiring people of color – and women – in front and behind-the-camera jobs has been measured, University of California researchers said. in Los Angeles (UCLA) in the report.
In turn, the public’s enthusiasm for shows such as Insecure by designer Issa Rae and the miniseries Watchmen with Emmy-winning actress Regina King has proven that inclusion pays business dividends as well as social dividends, said Darnell Hunt, dean of the university’s social program.
The main takeaway from the report is “the growing evidence of the importance of diversity to today’s public,” Hunt said in an interview. He co-wrote the annual report with Ana-Christina Ramón, social science research director at UCLA.
On digital platforms and TV channels, viewership among adults between the ages of 18 and 49 peaked in many cases when a show had a “majority minority distribution,” Hunt noted.
It is in line with the evolution of the United States. In 2010, four years before UCLA released its first report on Hollywood’s record for diversity, whites made up 63.7% of the population. In 2020, that census figure was just under 58%, the lowest on record.
“People basically want to see TV shows that look like America, that have characters they can relate to and have experiences that resonate with them,” Mr. Hunt said.
This builds on previous research in the television community, he said, and it also mirrors the UCLA film study released earlier this year.
For all households, including whites, for example, the median ratings were highest for scripted TV shows in which people of color made up between 31% and 40% of credited authors, according to the study.
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Insecure
For White, Latin American, and Asian households, median ratings peaked for scripted cable shows with castings that included 41% to 50% of people of color, while black household ratings were the highest for issues with “majority minority distributions,” according to the report.
People of color have not achieved parity in leading roles across all platforms. But for the first time in the report’s history, the overall diversity of conventional television distribution was slightly higher than in the general population of the United States (just under 43% of ethnic and racial groups).
Aboriginals “practically invisible”
While actors of color also moved closer to “proportional representation” on cable channels and digital platforms, most of the gains could be attributed to the growing share of black and multiracial roles, the researchers found.
Asian Americans – the fastest growing group in the country – and Latinos remain under-represented, while Indigenous people are “virtually invisible,” according to the report.
The study examined a total of 461 scripted shows across all platforms to determine the employment forays made by women and people of color as actresses, writers, directors and series creators.
Overall, there has been an increase in racial diversity in almost all job categories, with the representation of women improving in about half of them.