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American Morning
Are There Enough Television Shows With People of Color?
Aired August 15, 2001 - 11:01 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our top story this hour, people of color and their roles on television and in the movies. The question the NAACP is tackling head on this morning is are there enough shows with characters like this, African-Americans, Latinos and Asians? The NAACP is expected to issue some strong recommendations for Hollywood.
Let's take a look at the numbers here. The Screen Actors Guild issued a report that looked at the roles played by blacks in Hollywood. While the report found some increases in minority roles, more than three quarters of all television and movie jobs were filled by whites.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the NAACP is going to formally issue that report and its recommendations in about two hours from now. But we have learned that they will not include a much talked about boycott of the entertainment networks.
CNN's Lauren Hunter joins us now from Los Angeles. She's got more on this -- Lauren.
LAUREN HUNTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.
Yes, that's true. Mr. Mfume, the president of the NAACP, is in Hollywood today to talk about minority representation in the entertainment industry. He is expected to focus on television, primarily the four major broadcast networks and what changes have taken place over the last couple of years.
Now, as you recall in 1999, Mr. Mfume blasted Hollywood for a fall TV lineup that included very few to no leading characters of color. He called that a whitewash of programming. Under threat of boycotts and lawsuits, talks were held between minority groups and the networks and agreements were reached to increase diversity both in front of and behind the camera for writers, directors, actors.
As was mentioned, there was a report released this week by the Screen Actors Guild talking about racial representation in Hollywood.
If found that, indeed, roles had increased for minorities since last year, but the bulk of roles, about 76 percent of roles still went to Caucasian actors, followed by African-Americans at about 15 percent, Latinos at about five percent and Asians at about 2 1/2 percent. Now it's two years later. A new fall season is about to begin. There are about 22 new broadcast series ready to debut and more than half of those series feature minority characters. Mr. Mfume is expected to release his findings in a couple of hours. There is not expected to be a boycott announced, but just a push for more work to be done -- Leon.
HARRIS: Well, Lauren, as I remember, last time around all the focus was on the broadcast networks, which is different from cable, and there's so much of an explosion now in programming on cable. Is cable going to be brought under the microscope this time around?
HUNTER: That is not expected this time, either. There also is a look primarily at the four major networks, not looking at the W.B. and not looking at UPN, both of which feature shows with primarily minority casts. However, on cable also there are many shows with minority casts. As a matter of fact, in this month's Emmy telecast, there will be a special recognition given to Show Time, which features both "Soul Food," a primarily African-American show, and "Resurrection Beloved," featuring a primarily Latino cast, for their work at getting people both in front of and behind the camera, from writers to makeup people to producers to directors, people from those communities out on the air.
HARRIS: All right, good deal.
Thanks much, Lauren Hunter from Los Angeles. We'll see you later on -- Daryn.
KAGAN: Well, in the last couple of hours, CNN brought together a number of experts this morning on racial diversity in television. Leon had a chance to talk to this panel. Here are the opinions, their opinions, actually, on the current state of television.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALEX NOGALES, NATIONAL HISPANIC MEDIA COALITION: We are not pleased about it at all. Latinos are 13.6 of the U.S. population and our numbers are 4.9 in front of camera. That's just in front of camera. You go behind the camera, the numbers are even worse than that. And it isn't just about Latinos. It is also about Asian/Pacific Americans, Native Americans, as well as the NAACP and African-Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: And now, of course, there has been some progress made. It's a lot better than it was in the '70s or certainly in the 1960s. But there is still a long way to go and I think these NAACP reports are, in fact, sane and intelligent enough in the way in which they're moving forward that make them an awful lot more effective in the long run than, for example, the violence reports which leave us with nothing to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAGAN: CNN will have live coverage of the NAACP's report on television diversity. That comes up at 1:00 P.M. Eastern. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
