The USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative’s latest list of television’s most inclusive shows reveals that a majority of those shows are no longer on the air or have not been renewed.
Gee, I can’t imagine why.
“The list compiles data regarding on-screen and behind-the-camera personnel to rank the 100 most inclusive broadcast and cable series from the 2021-22 broadcast season and streaming series from 2021 to 2023,” reports the Messenger. “The list also includes the top 20 producers of the most inclusive shows on TV.”
“The research team looked at over 560 series airing on broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms across 15 inclusion indicators.” And guess what those “15 inclusion indicators” are. Yep, more of this nonsense: “The indicators ranked gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+, disability, and age representation for series regular cast.”
But.
“[A] troubling trend already emerges when looking at the inaugural list: a majority of the most inclusive shows have already ended, been canceled, or are still in renewal limbo.”
- Queen Sugar (OWN) [Ended in 2023 after seven seasons]
- The Baby (HBO) [Aired one season in 2022]
- Naomi (CW) [Canceled after one season]
- All American: Homecoming (CW)
- Twenties (BET)
- Queens (ABC) [Canceled after one season]
- The Kings of Napa (OWN)
- 4400 (CW) [Canceled after one season]
- Sistas (BET)
- P-Valley (Starz)
Of the top ten inclusive cable and broadcast shows, five are no longer on the air.
Of the top ten streaming shows, six have been canceled, while two were limited series not expected to return.
- Raising Dion (Netflix) [Canceled after two seasons]
- Gentefied (Netflix) [Canceled after two seasons]
- The Garcias (Max) [Canceled after one season]
- The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray (AppleTV+) [Limited series, aired in 2022]
- Reasonable Doubt (Hulu)
- Now and Then (Apple TV+)
- Rap Sh!t (Max)
- With Love (Amazon Prime) [Canceled after two seasons]
- First Kill (Netflix) [Canceled after one season]
- Swarm (Amazon Prime) [Limited series, aired in 2023]
Here’s the good news:
The report can be read as part of a larger narrative that Hollywood is pivoting away from diversity, equity and inclusion efforts that stepped up amid the George Floyd protests in 2020. The cancellation of these shows can be interpreted as part of a trend that also includes the exits of multiple DEI executives from major Hollywood companies last summer, as if studio leaders are deciding inclusion isn’t profitable enough.
We can only hope.
What Hollywood is doing to racial minorities can only be described as a grotesque disservice. Going all the way back to the eighties, mostly every field of entertainment — movies (Eddie Murphy), daytime TV (Oprah Winfrey), primetime TV (Bill Cosby), music (Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Prince, etc), comedy (Richard Pryor), and sports — were dominated by a flood of black talent the whole country embraced without ever thinking about race. The eighties were my high school years, and no one thought a thing about it when a white teenage girl tacked posters of black superstars to her wall.
What made those black celebrities straight-up 80’s superstars was their universal appeal, which gave them careers that lasted decades.
What Hollywood is doing to racial minorities is using them as Woke Cannon Fodder. These performers finally have a long overdue opportunity to hit the big time, but the unappealing, divisive, preachy, smug shows and roles they’re hired for kill their careers on the launch pad. Becoming a star requires one thing above all: audience goodwill. Entertainment today refuses to generate career-making goodwill. Instead, everything divides, scolds, lectures, and insults. This turns everyone of every color off, which is why we are buried in shows featuring non-whites, but no Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Pam Grier, Will Smith, Sidney Poitier, or 80’s Whoopi Goldberg has emerged. This is why no beloved Good Times, Family Matters, Fresh Prince, Scandal, The Wire, or Roc has emerged.
These oh-so-inclusive shows are not being canceled because America’s racist. Besides, no television show or movie needs a single white person to become a hit. There are 47 million black people in this country. If only 15 percent of them watch a show, it will be a hit. Where are all the left-wing Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden voters? If just ten percent of them tuned in, you have a hit show.
This survey doesn’t reveal a tolerance problem in America; it reveals a quality problem in left-wing Hollywood.
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