Daytime VS. Primetime: A Numbers Game

Daytime VS. Primetime

Television has a split personality. During daytime hours, people of color have a prominent presence, hosting talk shows and playing interesting roles in soap operas. Once the sun goes down, minorities are largely downgraded, with white entertainers holding a majority of the headlining roles. This phenomenon has come to a head recently, with the conversation surrounding "Saturday Night Live" on NBC. 

The show has been criticized by people within its own production and from outside viewers who are upset by the show's long-standing lack of ethnic diversity. In its run, the show has only had four African American women as regulars, and 10 men (two of whom are currently appearing). No black women have been regulars since Maya Rudolph left in 2007.

Executives at NBC say they are committed to increasing diversity in prime time, when most people are watching. Only a handful of returning network series (including ABC's "Scandal," starring Kerry Washington; Fox's "The Mindy Project," with Indian American actress Mindy Kaling; and CBS' "Elementary," with Asian American actress Lucy Liu)  feature minorities in lead roles.

This reminds me of a comment made in Devorah Heitner’s book about how African American centered programs were on primarily in the daytime in an effort to A) keep certain segments of the population in their houses (and not demonstrating for rights) and B) limit the impact of the views they were expressing (as daytime audiences even then were smaller than primetime ones). 

Additionally, the budgets for morning and afternoon shows are considerably smaller than for programs in prime time, where the risks are greater and more expensive. Television executives also develop shows with consideration of international markets where an ethnic lead may be less marketable. Looking for the broadest possible appeal, network executives almost always favor white leads for primetime shows.

Commonly, when characters of color are cast in those nighttime shows, he added, they are part of an ensemble; the shows are not about them. President Obama's election prompted them to consider retooling of lineups to add more racially diverse personalities. A major problem is that there are too few minorities in positions of power in the industry.