CBS execs face diversity questions

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — CBS may be the most watched network, but it also has gained a reputation as the least diverse.

Last fall, CBS had six new series with six white, male leads. This fall, CBS has six new shows with five featuring white, male leads. “S.W.A.T.,” starring Shemar Moore, is the lone exception. (This is a relatively recent trend at CBS, considering the network was once home to “Murphy Brown,” “Designing Women,” “The Jeffersons” and “The Good Wife.”)

This track record, coupled with fallout from the departure of two of the original AsianAmerican stars of “Hawaii Five0,” dominated CBS’s executive session at the Television Critics Association summer press tour Tuesday.

Newly appointed CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl and senior executive vice president of programming Thom Sherman fell on their swords out of the gate, promising to expand the palette of CBS programming.

“We want our slate to be inclusive,” Mr. Sherman said, adding that CBS developed six pilots with female leads this year. “The way things turned out, those pilots were not felt to be as good as some of the other pilots and series that were picked up. But that had nothing to do with the female leads. That’s just the cycle of business and how it happens sometimes.”

Mr. Kahl cited statistics about a growing number of shows featuring diverse characters and greater diversity among the ranks of writers and directors behind the scenes.

“We can debate, have a discussion about the pace of the change, but there is change,” he said. “We are making progress.”

When critics asked about several roles in pilots written for minorities and then cast with white actors and the homogeneity of the network’s casting department, executives didn’t offer much of a defense beyond trying to improve going forward.

The irony is among the plethora of military and police shows debuting across most of the broadcast networks this fall, CBS’s “S.W.A.T.” (10 p.m. Nov. 2) is the most topical. The pilot features a white cop accidentally shooting a black child during a firefight in the pilot episode and the repercussions that follow.

Executive producers Shawn Ryan (“The Shield”), who is white, and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas, who is black, said their goal is to entertain but in a real way.

Mr. Thomas said he centered