The ‘Empire’ Effect: Is The Sudden Diversification Of TV Really A Thing?

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Tis the season where black is back on the small screen. Apparently, the floodgates have burst open for minority actors in on TV, thanks in part to a phenomenon started by Shonda Rhimes (buoyed by showrunners like Mara Brock Akil and even Tyler Perry) and cemented by the juggernaut success of Fox’s breakout hit, Empire.

Actually we’ve been keeping track, and there are indeed scads of new vehicles with black leads being shot and greenlit every day — with pilots and pickups attached to everyone from Snoop Dogg and Issa Rae at HBO, to Meagan Goode and Craig Robinson over at NBC (with Goode also shooting a pilot for Fox). Laverne Cox has been cast in CBS’s DoubtAnika Noni Rose and Phylicia Rashad in Ava Duvernay’s For Justice, Paula Patton in ABC’s Runner, Yaya DaCosta and S. Epatha Merkinson in NBC’s Chicago Med, Rockmond Dunbar in Love Is a Four Letter Word, and Morris Chestnut in an unnamed drama procedural on Fox. Hell, even Michael K. Williams has two shows that he’s starring in this year. While these shows haven’t yet become series, the trend is actually taking place with Empire‘s Terrence Howard having a supporting role on Fox’s Wayward Pines and Keke Palmer co-starring on Ryan Murphy’s Scream Queens.

This is in addition to shows already on air with more diverse casts. Most (sane?) people see this as a good thing — not only for African Americans and other people of color who have been in an image desert for years, but for everyone — and reflective of a nu-American ideal that doesn’t place straight whiteness as the center of normal.

And frankly, whether this is happening because of a “trend” or a straight money grab (word is Empire commanded $600,000 per 30-second spot for its finale), we’ll take it.

And yet, there seems to be a backlash of sorts for those who love the status quo. Speaking of, there has been much deserved hullabahoo in response to Nellie Andreeva’s Deadline Hollywood article about the supposed Hollywood pushback on the #overwhemlingblackness of television in the new season (i.e. “2015: The Year of Ethnic Castings – Too Much Of Good Thing?” though last we checked that second part of the title has been removed.) Accordingly, ol’ Nellie got dragged on Twitter for retreading tired affirmative action “quota” tropes, as well as summarily served her ass here, here, and here, not in the least for referring to American actors as “ethnics” 21 times.

Yet, even in Nellie’s panic, the question must be asked, will there really be an influx of new black shows on TV anytime soon? Sure, a bunch of things have been announced, and there are an unprecedented number of pilots with black leads cast and shot, but really, does this mean your television set will be blacker than a Saturday afternoon at The Universoul Circus?

Was Nellie panicking for no reason?

Wilson Morales, the editor of BlackFilm.com, who has been in expert in “ethnic television” for more than a decade, says that there’s a long way from announcement to screen.

“It’s great to hear these shows being built around a black lead, but people forget Angela Bassett shot a pilot years ago where she was supposed to play a CIA director. Martin Lawrence came back last year with Kelsey Grammer on FX and that show didn’t do well. The same with Brandon T. Jackson and [the unaired pilot for] Beverly Hills Cop,” says Morales. “So it all depends. If it gets picked up, then the question is when is it going to air, and can it gain its audience.”

Pilot season is notoriously fickle, and the place where many a producers dreams are dashed along with the cold hard facts of reality. That is – there are only so many hours of programming on TV; in addition to that, once the show is made, will it last? (See: Meagan Good two years ago with Deception)

“Getting it made is great, but then it becomes a question of getting it on, and gaining an audience and sustaining audience,” explains Morales. “There are a lot of series that are getting talked about, but they don’t bring in the numbers.” Yet, Morales does point to the role that social media has in buoying these shows, and even to Scandal’s bumpy road until #BlackTwitter grabbed a hold of it.

So, those of us with sense wait anxiously to see if television this year will live up to its promise of a more diverse season. Announcements like Trevor Noah taking over The Daily Show give us hope, and so we are cautiously optimistic that American TV land will live up to its beautiful hype.

Angela Helm is a writer struggling to make sense of it all. 

 

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