In the last year, women and people of color in the television industry have made strides on camera, but they still have a ways to go behind it.
The 2020 UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report, released this morning, finds that just 8% of studio chairs and CEOs are people of color and 32% are women.
Further down the food chain is no better, with people of color making up only about one-quarter of credited writers in broadcast, cable, and digital, and just under 22% of episodes could claim a POC as director in 2018-19.
Another problem area with diversity is show creators. Minority representation was 10.3% in digital, 10.7% in cable, and 14.7% in cable, while women were 28.6%, 28.1%, and 22.4%, respectively.
“The underrepresentation of people of color in the executive suite, and as creators, writers and directors is problematic, even if there are more people of color in acting roles,” Ana-Christina Ramon, a coauthor of the report and director of research and civic engagement in the UCLA division of social sciences, said in a written statement. “When people of color do not control their own narrative, their characters’ storylines may lack authenticity, may be written stereotypically or their characters may even be depicted as ‘raceless.'”
The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report explores 453 shows in the 2017-18 season and 463 shows in 2018-19. The study was first conducted in 2014.
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