EW: Diversity in Entertainment: Why Is TV So White?

Click to expand. Source: Entertainment Weekly – Network breakdowns include only cast regulars (as of June 6, 2008) for scripted series airing in fall 2008.

I subscribe to Entertainment Weekly and in this past week’s issue, they had the story, “Diversity in Entertainment: Why Is TV So White?” and the lack of diversity of the television’s upcoming fall lineup of new shows.

Is it really that hard to fill television today with Asian Americans? I read the article, and some other postings on the web, and I still didn’t find any good answers. I have come to the conclusion that Hollywood is just plain lazy and not a priority. Well, with more choices in cable programming and the Internet, the major networks’ influence on entertainment is waining. Hopefully, in entertainment 2.0, there’ll be more Asian American representation reflective of our presence in this country, no matter how small it is relative to the general population.

With NBC supposedly having 9.7% of its cast members be Asian Americans, are we over-represented? How would that feel on the opposite end? And what kind of roles are these going to be? Are we ever going to see an Asian American male actor playing a regular role as a doctor? At least we got to see an Asian American couple kissing this year – LOL. I wonder if greater television actor diversity will occur once Senator Obama becomes president? 🙂 . Maybe ‘24‘ then will have a white president.

About John

I'm a Taiwanese-American and was born & raised in Western Massachusetts, went to college in upstate New York, worked in Connecticut, went to grad school in North Carolina and then moved out to the Bay Area in 1999 and have been living here ever since - love the weather and almost everything about the area (except the high cost of housing...)
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