CBS is premiering six new shows with all white male leads and when reporters at the Television Critics Association Summer Press Tour questioned CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller, he became defensive. “We’ve landed three remarkable TV stars, highly promotable stars”, Geller said of Joel McHale, Matt Leblanc and Kevin James.
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In the network’s defense, Gellar pointed out that CBS’s diversity efforts are reflected in its returning shows and with the supporting casts on their shows as a whole.
EW first pointed out In May that the network’s six fall shows had uniformly white male leads. As the Q&A portion of the session kicked off, the first several questions focused on CBS’ lack of diversity.
“We need to do better and we know it”, said Geller.
“I am acknowledging we need to do better”, he explained. In terms of leads, we are definitely less diverse this year than last year, and like I said, we need to do better.
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When asked why CBS’ showrunners aren’t broadly represented, Geller answered, “Sometimes our showrunners are diverse, sometimes they’re not diverse”. “We need to do better” was echoed several times throughout the presentation, and he emphasized the 11 non-white leads that had been added. And I understand certainly the inclination to look at the screen and just look at leads and say, “Well, what’s going on?” “In terms of overall diversity. we were actually more diverse this year than last year and I think that’s our commitment to diversity”. The network’s new midseason legal drama Doubt starring Katherine Heigl features transgender actress and rights advocate Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black) in a costarring role. One reporter mentioned how fast FX chief John Landgraf responded when he was first awakened to the stat that his network possessed one of the lowest diversity ratios per the Directors Guild. Only one of CBS’ new shows, also for midseason, has a black lead (Training Day, with newcomer Justin Cornwell starring opposite Bill Paxton). Half the directors are diverse on The Odd Couple, ” continued Geller. Stars of the Chuck Lorre-created sitcom locked up a rich multi-year deals that ends after the tenth season that pay them in the neighborhood of $1 million per episode.
