ASIAN AMERICAN MEDIA ALLIANCE ISSUES ANNUAL ASSESSMENT OF THE 2020-21 NETWORK BROADCAST TV EFFORTS ON DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION.

February 21, 2023

Despite the efforts of the AAMA to re-establish relationships with the Broadcast Networks, the lack of full data disclosure for the 2020-21 TV Season by networks other than CBS, suggests a continued lack of transparency and accountability in the industry.

CONTACT

Milton Liu, milton@aamediaalliance.org

https://www.aamediaalliance.org/

Los Angeles – In 2022, civil rights and media activism organizations from the former APA Media Coalition – the only organization to have graded the top four television networks from 2001 –2019 – prioritized and restructured itself as the Asian American Media Alliance (AAMA) to bolster the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities, advocating for both the full inclusion and representation of Asian Americans in visual entertainment media, onscreen and behind the camera. The lack of representation (and misrepresentation) of our AANHPI communities during the pandemic, served to fuel disassociation and intolerance, resulting in the rise in hate and violence.

The AAMA’s predecessor graded the four major Broadcast Television Networks on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and issued Report Cards for each broadcast season based largely on numerical criteria. However, as part of its restructuring, the Alliance announced that it wished to focus on increased dialogue with the Networks and to provide more of a narrative Assessment of each Network’s progress toward advancing DEI, rather than issuing letter grades. This was met with tremendous enthusiasm from the DEI departments at the Networks.

However, as the Alliance prepared for meetings with the Networks, the Networks balked at providing data for Asian Pacific Islander (API) creatives for the 2020 – 21 Season as stipulated in our Memoranda of Understanding (MOU) Agreement. Only CBS provided the complete DEI data (with FOX submitting partial data after the fact). Therefore, CBS is the only Network that can truly be assessed both quantitatively and qualitatively. Assessments for the 2020-21 Season for ABC, NBC and to a lesser degree, FOX – must, out of necessity, be based on publicly available information and may well suffer as a result of their own failure to fully engage with the Alliance with respect to diversity data.

*Note that the AAMA understands the COVID-19 pandemic created a decrease in the overall production of television programming, resulting in a decrease in the hiring of creative talent across the board. However, percentages should not show a decrease due to this. For ABC, we relied on a previously released report (July 2020) that estimated their data for 2020 – 21.

Across the board, the Networks saw a drop in the percentages of API Talent for the 2020 – 21 Season. For CBS, this was due to “Hawaii Five-O” coming off the schedule. However, CBS also supplied data for the 2021 – 22 Season which includes the debut of “NCIS: Hawai’i” (with API showrunner Larry Teng, co-creator Matt Bosack, and regular actors Vanessa Lachey, Alex Tarrant, Yasmine Al-Bustami, Kian Talan and Mahina Napoleon). For the 2021 – 22 Season, CBS shows a marked increase in API Scripted Regular Actors that is even above the 2019 – 20 Season in number and percentage. In addition, CBS continues to shine in its API Unscripted/Alternative Talent as these percentages have increased slightly over the past three seasons. During the 2020 – 21 Season, FOX had 8 (6.1%) API Scripted Regular Actors on all of its series, which is slightly down from the previous season (6.24%). FOX also had a total of 18 API Scripted Guest Star/Recurring Actors appearing on 9 out of 18 total scripted series. There was no information on the total amount of Scripted Guest Star/Recurring Actors for FOX scripted series. “The Cleaning Lady” from Executive Producers Miranda Kwok and Shay Mitchell, stars Elodie Yung, Martha Millan, Sean Lew and Sebastian and Valentino LaSalle, debuted the following season (2021 – 22), which is not reflected in this report. As of now, FOX expects API Scripted Regulars for the 2021 – 2022 Season to be at 13 (10.8%). During the 2020 – 21 Season FOX’s API representation across Unscripted/Alternative was 13.3% (4 out of 30), which is up from the previous season (10%). For ABC-aired shows, 8 out of 130 (6.2%) were API Scripted Regular Actors. This is down from the prior 2019 – 20 Season of 18 out of 185 (9.7%). For ABC Studios-produced shows, 11 out of 145 (7.6%) were API Scripted Regular Actors. This is slightly down from the prior 2019 – 20 Season of 16 out of 192 (8.1%). For API Scripted Recurring Actors, there is no data for the 2020 – 21 Season. However, for the 2019 – 20 Season of ABC- aired shows, 21 out of 270 were API Recurring Actors (7.8%); and for ABC Studios-produced shows, 24 out of 288 were API Recurring Actors (8.3%). With the non-renewal of “Fresh Off the Boat” and “Agents of SHIELD,” we expected API talent to decline somewhat. For ABC’s API Unscripted/Alternative Talent, we have no data for the 2020 – 21 Season. However, for the 2019 – 20 Season of ABC-aired shows, 7 out of 81 were API Unscripted Regulars (8.0%); and for ABC Studios-produced shows, 1 out of 8 were API Unscripted Regulars (12.5%). Along with ABC, NBC has declined to provide AAMA with API data for the 2020 – 21 Season – the first time since 2000 they have refused to do so. It’s unfortunate since the Alliance has communicated with the Networks that we would not solely be a watchdog, but would also provide outreach to our communities to advocate programming with API talent and creatives (e.g., ABC’s “The Company You Keep” and NBC’s “Young Rock”, “Chicago Med”, “Quantum Leap”, and the new network for “Magnum P.I.”).

For the 2020 – 21 Season, CBS’ API Writers/Producers showed encouraging results increasing from 15 (5.6%) to 19 (8.4%), including keeping steady at the Executive Producer and Co-EP level with 5 for both seasons. For the 2021 – 22 Season, CBS saw an increase in API Writers/Producers to 27 (12.1%). For FOX, API Writers/Producers decreased slightly from 14 to 12 or 5.5% to 3.8%, consisting of 9 API Writers and 3 Executive Producers. However, it should be noted that for the 2021 – 22 Season, “The Cleaning Lady” joined FOX’s schedule including Executive Producers Miranda Kwok and Shay Mitchell.

Unique API Directors of CBS shows decreased from 17 (6.3%) and 25 episodes directed (5.6%) to 8 (4.9%) and 15 episodes directed (4.5%), respectively, partly due to the cancellation of “Hawaii-Five-O” in 2020. With the inclusion of data for “NCIS: Hawai’i” for the 2021 – 22 Season, CBS was able to increase the number of unique API Directors to 13 (6.2%) with 17 episodes directed (4.5%). API Directors of FOX scripted series decreased from 14 to 11 (out of 117), registering a total of approximately 9.4% for the 2020 – 21 Season. It should be noted that due to production shutdowns, pandemic programming was more unscripted during this period. Even as this may be the case, FOX provided no information on API Directors of their unscripted programming. For all the Networks, it’s vital and essential to not only look at the number of API Writers and Directors, but also the number of upper-level Writers and the variety of Directors attached to shows.

The biggest gains for AANHPIs in the 2020 – 21 Season can be seen in non-network media, including shows on streamers and cablers such as “Squid Game”, “Ramy”, “Awkwafina is Nora from Queens” and “Never Have I Ever”; narrative feature films such as “Minari” and “Definition Please”; and documentary feature films such as “Free Chol Soo Lee” and “Try Harder”. Also, in 2022, gains in AANHPI representation were seen in non-network media with “Pachinko”, “Doogie Kamealoha, M.D.”, “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, “Turning Red” and “Bad Axe”.

“Since the Alliance began meeting with the networks in 2000,” noted AAMA Chair Emeritus Daniel Mayeda, “we have seen a gradual improvement in API representation in front of, and behind the camera. As part of the larger Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition (MEMC) —which also includes the NAACP, National Latino Media Council, and American Indians in Film/TV—we pushed the networks to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), create diversity departments, talent showcases, writers and directors programs, and other pipeline programs.”

“But progress has plateaued in many cases for the networks,” Mayeda said. “And the lack of API representation has been apparent since the beginning of the pandemic – not due to the drop in the number of shows produced, but in the decreased percentages of API creatives compared to other groups.”

“Visual entertainment media is a powerful tool not only for showcasing diversity, equity and inclusion, but also in creating awareness,” said AAMA Chair Thu Nguyen. “Throughout history, and especially in the past few years, there are direct links between misrepresentations in the media and the rise in bias-motivated attacks against our AANHPI communities,” added AAMA Vice Chair Kavneet Singh. “Telling the stories and showcasing the talent of Asian Americans has a direct effect on curbing hate crimes against our collective communities.”

“Moving forward, the need for representation and narrative change is imperative in this ever- changing media landscape,” stated Interim Executive Director Milton Liu. “We will continue to work with the Broadcast Networks and further our relationships with the Creative Guilds and other media activism organizations. Further, we will expand our reach into assessing API data for streamers, cablers and feature narrative and documentary films – coupled with events such as a recent panel with the Taiwan Creative Content Fest featuring Soo Hugh (showrunner for “Pachinko”) and Jamie Lai (Head of Development & Production, Bound Entertainment – “Dr. Brain”), and the Asian Pacific Filmmakers Experience (APFE) at Sundance 2023 (in partnership with the Sunrise Collective). AAMA will continue with its participation with the APFE at the 2023 film festivals for SXSW, Tribeca and Toronto International.

Linked here is the AAMA’s full Assessment for the 2020 – 21 Broadcast TV Season.

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The Asian American Media Alliance (AAMA) Member Organizations include Asian Americans Advancing Justice— AAJC, East West Players, Japanese American Citizens League, National Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, OCA—Asian Pacific American Advocates, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Visual Communications.

AAMA Affiliate Organizations include Asian American Documentary Network, Asian CineVision, Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Center for Asian American Media, Center for Asian Americans United for Self Empowerment, Hawai’i International Film Festival, Pacific Arts Movement, and Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association.