anford and Son and The Jeffersons. Or the 80’s, when Bill Cosby ruled supreme and little Arnold made us cry laughing on Different Strokes.”. You might also be wondering when a minority would be moving in next door to the cast of Friends. The answers could lie in the industry’s most popular excuses. The first excuse is economics. The business of TV is ruled by a simple declaration: Get the audience the advertisers want. The consequence is that major networks forgo the mass audience for a niche of young, urban, white people. Hence, the network schedule will reflect that. The networks are not exactly rewarded for promoting diversity. Take these examples from Entertainment Weekly: 1.NBC, the only network to make a profit last year, also boasts the whitest programming.2.The WB’s Felicity draws similar numbers of 18- to 49- year-olds as the net’s two highest- rated black series, The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show. But last season, Felicity commanded about $80,000 per 30 second commercial while The Steve Harvey Show and The Jamie Foxx Show each drew less than $40,000 for an equivalent spot.3.The WB lost 20 percent of its black 18- to 49-year-old viewers last season yet will earn record ad revenue this fall.The facts do not lie and it’s a wonder why none of the ad execs EW interviewed would go on record. Because the position they are defending is borderline racist: White viewers are worth more than black viewers, they won’t talk about it. And the studios share a similarly narrow view: Networks generate less ad money from “black” shows, so they pay less to the studio. Plus potential revenue from reruns and international sales of black series are smaller.Second excuse is the plethora of networks today. Back in the old days there were only three broadly programmed networks. That all changed in the late 80’s with the launch of Fox, a network that found early success targeting...
