(Los Angeles) TV series featuring ethnic or cultural diversity rose in terms of audiences during the pandemic in the United States, but Latin American artists remain under-represented and transgender actors “almost absent”, according to an annual study released Tuesday.
The Hollywood Diversity Report produced by the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) observes a correlation between the audience scores recorded last year and the diversity of the cast and screenwriters, particularly among households themselves from minorities.
It is for the series considered to be “relatively diverse” (31 to 40% of minorities) that the audience scores are highest among white households. In households defining themselves as “black”, on the other hand, the audience is at its maximum when more than half of the actors belong to minorities.
“The fact that series with a team of minority authors worked well last year also illustrates that viewers want an authentic performance,” said Darnell Hunt, co-author of the study and researcher at UCLA.
Non-white artists have made modest progress in “almost every sector” of the television industry, but the representation of Latin Americans, already very low, has not improved.
Latin Americans made up only 3.9% of the lead roles on US cable channels, while 18.5% of the US population identifies as “Latino”.
While comedian Dave Chappelle’s comments about transgender people in a recent Netflix show sparked controversy, the UCLA study struggled to find any in Hollywood. “Trans and non-binary actors are almost absent from all platforms,” according to the study.
Campaigners denouncing Dave Chappelle’s remarks and Netflix’s support for the comedy have called on the video-on-demand platform to invest more in program development by transgender creators and to hire more LGBTQ workers in leadership roles. direction.