On Diversity, Cable's Not There Yet

Cable celebrated its diversity efforts in New York, but surveys reflecting the amount of diversity on-screen and in the employment ranks show there’s still work to do.

A study of median household ratings during the 2011-12 television season revealed what seems like a no-brainer, given the diverse makeup of the country: Cable shows in which 31% to 40% of the cast represented people of color on average generated higher household ratings than shows in which minorities represented 10% or less of the cast. The Hollywood Diversity Brief: Spotlight on Cable Television report, conducted by the Ralph Bunche Center for African-American Studies at UCLA, also showed a majority of the casts of more than 844 shows across 61 cable networks examined had fewer than 10% minority actors and actresses. The industry committed $1.75 million to help advance the diversity cause. But National Cable & Telecommunications Association CEO Michael Powell noted that cable needs to further “engage the topic with the sense of dissatisfaction, because we’re not there yet.”