CBS lagging on diversity, top exec admits
Network needs to do better with shows’ lead roles, president says
CBS’s entertainment president defended his network’s efforts to air more inclusive series even as it introduces a fall slate of new sitcoms and dramas with white male stars.
Glenn Geller, fielding a barrage of diversity-related questions at a TV critics meeting this week, repeatedly said the network must improve “and we know it.”
“In terms of leads, we’re definitely less diverse this year than last year, and we need to do better,” Geller said.
But progress is being made in other areas, he insisted.
“We also need to look behind the camera, as well,” he said, with diversity at CBS to be found, for example, among more than half the directors on Madam Secretary and on The Odd Couple.
Asked why the executive producers or “showrunners” on new CBS series are all white, Geller responded that the network “picked up the best shows from the pilots we made.”
CBS’s new shows, including a MacGyver update and a show inspired by Phil McGraw’s early career, feature Michael Weatherly, Kevin James, Joel McHale, Dermot Mulroney and other white stars.
Minority characters are joining returning series. Among them: African-American actor Nelsan Ellis joining the cast of Elementary, Latino actor Wilmer Valderrama coming on board as an agent on NCIS, and black actress-comedian Aisha Tyler becoming a series regular on Criminal Minds.
At midseason, CBS will debut Doubt, starring African-American transgender actress Laverne Cox (Orange is the New Black) alongside Katherine Heigl, and Training Day with black actor Justin Cornwell starring opposite Bill Paxton.
Other networks have made strides, most notably ABC with series including Black-ish and Scandal that are topped by minority actors.
The day before Geller spoke to the Television Critics Association, FX Networks chief John Landgraf discussed his efforts to quickly and successfully address a lack of minority directors.
Why is a lack of diversity so entrenched at CBS?
“Look, I’m acknowledging we need to do better,” said Geller, who took over as CBS Entertainment president last fall.
Last year, The Associated Press did an analysis of the ethnic diversity of casts of prime-time comedies and dramas on major networks, comparing results with 2000 when civil rights groups protested show lineups nearly devoid of minorities.
CBS, the nation’s most popular network, had the most diversity 15 years ago but the least in 2015, the analysis found.