Survey Cites Low Number of Minority Writers on Series

TV executives on Friday were mostly unavailable or slow to react to a newly released survey conducted by the Beverly Hills/Hollywood branch of the NAACP and a group of African American writers that detailed a disproportionately low number of minority writers on network comedies and dramas.

ABC, CBS and Fox reacted to the survey, as they have since the issue of the near absence of minority actors on the season’s new prime-time shows first emerged in May during network upfront presentations to advertisers: repeating a broad-stroke commitment to diversity in front of and behind the camera. Other networks and most television studios, which produce shows and thus are on the front-line of hiring writers as well as actors, were unavailable for comment.

Billie Green, president of the local NAACP branch, said the survey, which was conducted over a two-month period by the branch and the Coalition of African American Television Writers, revealed what she called “discriminatory writing practices” by studios and networks in the hiring of writers.

She said the lack of diversity on TV writing staffs was more blatant than the dearth of minorities that were cast in new shows premiering this fall on the four major networks.

The survey concluded that of the 839 writers currently employed on prime-time network shows, only 55 are African American. Additionally, 83% of those 55 black writers are employed on black-themed shows.

The survey also stated that shows such as “Spin City,” “Touched by an Angel,” and “Veronica’s Closet” feature black characters, but have no black writers or producers working on those shows.

Also, only 11 Latino and three Asian American writers are working on prime-time series this fall, the survey said. There are no Native American writers employed on a prime-time series, according to the survey.

“We wanted to do this survey to basically embarrass the industry,” said Green. “Now they can really see where the shortcomings are. Hopefully they can start to make corrections by employing writers of color.”

For example, according to the survey, CBS has a total of 144 writers on their series, but only two of them are African American. Both work on “Cosby,” starring Bill Cosby. NBC has a total of 198 writers, but only one black writer, who works on “Third Watch.”

Said Green: “African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans and other minorities make up over 30% of the population of this country. But combined, these groups account for only 7% of prime time network writing positions.”

A few network executives privately said that while they were taking note of the survey, they pointed fingers at studios who do the actual hiring of writers for series. The lack of diversity in writing staffs is a critical battleground for Green and the NAACP since that is the track to eventually becoming a producer, who in turn develop the shows themselves, like Steven Bochco and David E. Kelley.

Green accused the industry of “blatant racism,” saying that writers of color, particularly African Americans, had been told repeatedly that they were not wanted for series featuring predominantly or all-white casts, but that white writers were routinely hired on black-themed shows.

Many shows with staffs of 10 or more writers, such as “The Simpsons,” “The West Wing,” “Just Shoot Me,” “Frasier,” “Two Guys and a Girl,” and “Dharma & Greg,” have no black writers, the survey said.

In the survey, several studios were also singled out as not hiring African Americans including NBC Studios, Paramount, Spelling TV, Studios USA TV, DreamWorks, Castle Rock and Imagine. Big Ticket Television had the most black writers--18--but all of them were on shows broadcast on UPN, which has several series targeted for urban audiences. Of the 14 black writers working at Warner Bros. TV, 12 were working on black shows shown on the WB network, the survey said.

Green said she would wait for reaction from the various TV entities before determining the next step in what will be an ongoing effort to increase minority participation within the TV industry.