A FORUM FOR COMMUNITY ISSUES : THE RAFU SHIMPO (Japanese) : What Could Networks Lose by Including Asians, Others?

The new fall television lineup was just announced this week. Thirty-four new shows in all, including 19 comedies, 12 dramas and three “reality” shows. Once again, by the end of the year, most will fall.

Most deserve to.

Forget about your big screen color television. It might as well be an old black and white one; once again, the four networks (CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox) are acknowledging mostly those races in their programming.

According to Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times, Latinos are included in four of the shows: “Frannie’s Turn,” “The Round Table,” “The Hat Squad,” and “Likely Suspects.”

But where are the Asian ones?

Fox had the best potential to introduce Asian and more Latino characters in their new line-up; their shows are more geared toward the 18-29 demographic than the three older networks. Due to the continual stream of Asian immigrants, there are more and more teen-agers of Asian descent in real life. It would therefore be natural to introduce them in some of these shows. They’d certainly tune in to watch themselves making it worth the network’s time and advertiser’s money. But noooo!

What could the networks lose in trying to build a series around people of all races? Why is that idea still so revolutionary?

From a commentary by Guy Aoki, president of the Media Action Network for Asian-Americans (MANAA) in the Rafu Shimpo, a Japanese daily newspaper in Los Angeles.