US programming reflects growing diversity of viewers
HIT SHOWS SUCH AS QUANTICO AND EMPIRE INVOLVE MORE RACIALLY DIVERSE ACTORS
Bollywood meets Hollywood in Quantico, a drama on Walt Disney’s ABC network, with Priyanka Chopra playing an FBI agent on the run after being implicated in a terrorist plot.
The casting of one of India’s biggest movie stars seems to have paid off: Quantico performed strongly enough for ABC to commission a second series. But the show is part of a broader effort by the network to cast more racially diverse actors in starring roles at a time when the composition of audiences is changing and the distribution of television programming is in flux.
Technological changes have reshaped the broadcast landscape, says Paul Lee, president of ABC’s entertainment group. Serialised dramas, such as the network’s Scandal, which was licensed to streaming service Netflix after its broadcast run, have “recruited a whole new audience for us”. Digital platforms have created a new revenue stream, he adds.
But changes in front of the camera have been no less striking. The biggest broadcast hit of the year was Empire, the Fox network drama about a hiphop dynasty featuring a predominantly African-American cast. A recent study by Variety, the entertainment trade magazine, found that a 30-second advertising spot during the show cost more than $500,000 (Dh1.84 million) — second only to NBC’s regular Sunday night American football broadcast.
ABC’s Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder — which has also been licensed to Netflix — also feature African-American stars and are produced by Shonda Rhimes, television’s most bankable hit creator.
Secondary roles no more
It was not long ago that black and other minority actors were relegated to secondary roles in prime time television series. But times are changing: Viola Davis, the star of How to Get Away with Murder, recently won the Emmy for best actress in a dramatic series — becoming the first black woman to ever scoop the award.
Lee says ABC has deliberately shaken up its line-up, commissioning series from more racially diverse talents. “We’ve tried to be inclusive of the audience,” he says. “Let’s reflect the country as it truly is.”
“We know the multicultural audience is growing in size,” says Esther Franklin, head of Americas strategy at Starcom MediaVest Group, the media buying agency. Advertisers have noticed, she says, partly because this new generation of shows is attracting audiences that may have once felt marginalised or excluded by the programmes available to them.
Marketers are also aware that different cultures can exert an outsize influence on consumer tastes and behaviours, she adds, pointing to music, fashion and food preferences. Salsa and tortilla chips, a staple of Hispanic communities, now outsell potato crisps in the US, for example.
Franklin mentions Empire, which increased its audience each week in its first series, defying broadcasting convention. “The audience is more engaged because this content is more reflective of the audience,” she says. “They are participating with it on social media and the advertisers want to reach them.”
Producers and networks used to make programming designed to appeal to the broadest possible audience but shows that focus on characters from a specific ethnic or racial group are among those succeeding in the ratings, says Lee.
“If you are going to reflect America and unleash creativity then let’s get some people who have a story to tell. What we’re seeing is that the more specific the voices and stories are, the larger the audience,” he says.
The new generation of shows on ABC and Fox appear to mark a sharp break with the history of broadcast television, but the change has actually been a decade in the making. Franklin says the turning point was the launch on ABC of Grey’s Anatomy
in 2005. Created and produced by Rhimes, it featured a racially diverse cast and was a big success.
Since then Rhimes has churned out hit after hit for the network to the extent that ABC has devoted its Thursday night primetime line-up to shows made by Shondaland, her production company. She has four series on the network this year.
Wider audience
The new generation of programming is resonating with traditional white audiences but also with other minority groups.
“These shows are reaching beyond the traditional multicultural segment,” says Franklin. She points to the IndianAmerican community as an example, which she says is “rising in influence”, and which has been accompanied by a new generation of stars, such as the comedians Aziz Ansari and Mindy Kaling — and now, Chopra from Quantico.
Demographic change that affects consumer and viewing behaviour is not going away, says Lia Silkworth, managing director of Starcom MediaVest’s multicultural division. “These demographic groups have never been more diverse and they see the world very differently from the generation that preceded them. If media companies and advertisers want to be relevant they have to engage with them.”