Disappearing acts: all-Black casts are fading from the prime-time TV lineup

Ebony, Oct, 2006 by Lynette R. Holloway

NOT too long ago, African-American television viewers were able to tune in to a group of shows featuring mostly Black casts, including Martin, Like Family, The Hughleys, Bernie Mac and The Parkers. While the shows were primarily comedies that delivered big laughs, their messages were in tune with the cultural economic and social drumbeat of some segments of African-American life.

Now, thanks to a disappearing act in the world of television, all-Black casts have become a thing of the past, primarily, according to some observers, because of a widening effort by executives to appeal to a broader range of viewers in an attempt to lure more advertisers, who are spending big bucks to support programs with so-called multicultural casts. As a result, top-rated shows like Grey's Anatomy on ABC represent the new gold standard for television with its multicultural cast. The show features a White female lead actress (Ellen Pompeo) and a dynamic cast of African-American co-stars, including Chandra Wilson, Isaiah Washington and James Pickens Jr. The show's creator, Shonda Rhimes, is Black. While Grey's Anatomy gets high marks among most in the African-American community, the prototype has caused alarm among some observers who are concerned about the disappearance of all-Black casts.

"[Network executives are] scrambling to create shows that they believe are going to reach the widest demographic possible," says Debra Martin Chase, whose popular Lifetime series Missing, starring Vivica A. Fox, was recently cancelled, even though it featured a multicultural cast. "Often what that means is that they are not looking to shows that are ethnically based because they are afraid they are not going to get the greatest percentage of the audience."

The wildest swing away from Black-themed television is expected to come this fall when UPN and the WB merge into a new broadcast network known as the CW. The merger will result in the cancellation of several African-American-themed sitcoms from UPN, including One on One and Half & Half, a move that has come under heavy criticism by some Black media critics. But while the cancellations appear to be harsh, Vicangelo Bulluck, executive director of the NAACP's Hollywood bureau and executive producer of the NAACP Image Awards, says he remains "cautiously optimistic that the network is in transition following its merger. In our discussions with the CW, [executives] made a commitment to diverse programming. It's [a commitment] we believe they intend to keep and one that we will be monitoring."

As part of that commitment, the CW has pledged to keep top-rated shows such as All of Us, Everybody Hates Chris, Girlfriends, and America's Next Top Model in its prime-time lineup. Further, the network is slated to unveil a new African-American-themed comedy this fall called The Game, a series about the lives of wives and girlfriends of professional football players. Dawn Ostroff, president of entertainment for CW, says picking up shows that existed prior to the merger underscores the network's commitment to diverse programming. She downplayed a question about meeting a barrage of criticism from the Black community related to the new network's cancellation of several shows. "Everybody recognizes that we had to combine shows from two different networks, and the strongest shows survived," says Ostroff. Additionally, she says that the network added additional time on Sunday for shows geared toward African-Americans. "In a schedule where we had to pick the best of the best, we certainly feel that African-Americans are being represented."

The shift away from all-Black programming comes at a time when television executives are scrambling to compete with expanding cable-viewing options and technological advances that give viewers the ability to bypass advertising in favor of commercial-free viewing. Additionally, television viewing, which once represented the lion's share of leisure-time activities, is competing with the Internet and computer games, among other pastimes, for viewers' down time. Still, the struggle to remain relevant in the lives of viewers does not represent an excuse to give all Black shows the short shrift, Bulluck says.

There is a popular view that it is during major transition periods that networks should reaffirm a commitment to African-American viewers, as well as other minorities. Under new program shifts, African-American viewers will be limited to blocks of time dedicated to Black-themed shows, Bulluck says. He also expressed concern that the CW plans to air its entire lineup of Black-themed shows on Sunday nights--one of the most competitive TV nights in the business. For example, pitting Girlfriends against Grey's Anatomy, Bulluck argues, is a surefire way to create a ratings vacuum for both shows among Black viewers. Both Girlfriends and Grey's Anatomy received high marks among Black viewers last season, with 2.7 million tuning in to Girlfriends and 2 million tuning in to Grey's Anatomy, according to Nielsen Media Research.