State of blacks on TV: Challenges, opportunities and everything in-between

By Jackie Jones and
Patrice Gaines
BlackAmericaWeb.com
(August 24, 2006) The state of television for black folks is filled with opportunities, but also full of challenges as black entrepreneurs, writers and producers work to control more of the images of black Americans on our TV screens.

“(Black people) watch more TV on average than other Americans,” Esther Iverem, cultural critic, author and founder of www.Seeingblack.com, told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “Despite whatever our economic situation is, many of us use cable services. Consistently, the most popular shows we watch are black-themed shows.

“As the television universe has expanded in general,” she said, “so have the experiences portrayed by blacks.”

She said “Nick Cannon Presents ‘Wild ‘N Out’” on MTV is an example of the type of new program opportunities that have opened up for blacks because of the expansion of networks.

Cannon, a 25-year-old rapper, actor and comic, created, produced and composed the music theme for his show, which is entering its third season and draws some of the highest ratings in its time slot (10 p.m., Thursdays). The show features two teams of hot, up-and-coming comics who go head-to-head in a series of “improv battles.” Each week, Cannon’s team challenges a celebrity guest and the guest’s team to a fast-paced war of words and wits.

MTV recently announced it has signed a “first look” production deal with Cannon, which will permit him to develop, produce, consult and appear on potential MTV branded programming.

Iverem also noted “Run’s House” on MTV, a reality show that follows the family of Joseph Simmons, aka Rev. Run, the hip-hop pioneer from Run DMC and brother of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

“These cable shows are getting mass audiences, what I believe are crossover audiences,” said Iverem. “We are watching everything everyone else watches, and we’re caught up in reality TV, too.”

“The one area, arguably, where there’s real evidence of progress is in cable TV,” said Bob Reid, executive vice president and network general manager for The Africa Channel, which provides news, entertainment and lifestyle programming from Africa.

Reid, a veteran broadcaster and former executive vice president and general manager of the Discovery Health Network, said opportunities for black writers, producers and entrepreneurs are diminishing in network television.

“If you look at the demise of the WB and UPN or the merger of the WB and UPN, you’d have to say we have a net loss in television, in terms of opportunities for blacks,” Reid told BlackAmericaWeb.com.

In network television, he said, “there are four or five new sitcoms without African-Americans in a lead role. It is further evidence that as far as comedy is concerned, there’s a continuing kind of apartheid situation. Either you are in a black sitcom or you’re not likely to appear.”

Reid and actor Robert Townsend, CEO and president of production for the Black Family Channel, say their operations seek to provide quality programming and job opportunities.

“There’s not one drama on (major network) television with an African-American in a lead role,” Townsend told BlackAmericaWeb.com. “They are all part of an ensemble. In terms of sitcoms, it’s only the channel CW, so the landscape is lopsided. We’re trying to create a world for young African-American producers and writers to have a place to create.”

Reid said that when Fox, the WB and UPN started out, they used a tried-and-true formula.

“When you start out programming a new network, you have a niche audience,” he said, noting that all three initially broadcast programs targeted to or popular with black audiences. “As it grows in distribution and popularity, they expand the base and program fewer programs that appeal to blacks.

“With the merger of the WB and UPN, half as much air time is available” on network television that is targeted to black audiences, Reid said.

Suzanne Ryan, television critic for the Boston Globe, said she can recall when Fox used to be “the black network. Then WB, then UPN and now CW, which it looks like will lump all the black shows together on Sunday.”

She told BlackAmericaWeb.com she was puzzled that “Everybody Hates Chris,” which she says was “successful and heavily promoted last year” is coming on at 7 p.m. on Sunday this season -- “not prime time.”

“It’s the same old game: Negro Night, ghettoizing shows. It’s as if they are being lumped together as an afterthought. Sunday night is a good TV night, but it’s bizarre they are all on the same night. It’s like they are just getting it over with. It’s strange.”

Ryan did say, however, that “The Game,” created by Mara Brock Akil, creator of “Girlfriends,” is the show to watch in the new season.

The comedy explores the crazy world of the girlfriends and wives of professional athletes,” Ryan said. It will follow “Girlfriends” on Sunday night.

“I would flag ‘The Game’ as the most interesting new thing,” Ryan said, pausing. “Really, it’s the only new show with an all African-American cast.”

Reid said it takes about three to five years for a channel to make a go of things, pointing out that the Black Family Channel currently reaches 20 million households, but “they should be in 40 million to 50 million households in three to five years.”

“The implication for these networks -- TV One, Black Family Channel, Africa Channel -- is that at least you have executives who are, primarily African-American and who are in a position to determine what gets covered and how it gets covered, he said. "It’s to cable’s credit that it’s in that arena.”

But the challenge is in distribution, both Reid and Townsend maintained, and in getting black people to demand quality programming from their cable and satellite providers.

“You want to get on as many systems as possible,” Townsend said. “You have to develop a relationship” with the provider. “One of the things you need are the eyeballs, and eyeballs drive all the traffic. They want to know you have this incredible reach.”

He said the Black Family Channel has shown that it can “counter the reality shows and music videos that young African-Americans watch. We’re trying to create something that as much as it’s entertaining, it’s educating.”

The next step, Reid said, is getting a group of high profile, affluent black Americans to band together and buy or develop the means to distribute black programming.

Reid said it takes “high network, high profile individuals understanding the value of the media and committing to it. It’s not easy to do that. It takes a lot of work. You have to raise the money. You have to convince the gatekeepers to give us bandwidth. Then you have to have a product that people want to watch. You have to make the case from a business perspective to put you on the air.”

Short of that kind of investment, Reid and Townsend said, public pressure is the next best way to get black programming on the major cable and satellite outlets.

“Viewers can be effective lobbyists,” Townsend said. “These things do have an effect and an impact. You can say, ‘This is a company that is a black company doing the right thing.’ We gotta bang on the doors of Comcast, bang on the doors of DirecTV and say we want that. Anytime you call your cable company, it’s like a vote.”

High definition television takes up more than 70 household cable channels, Reid said. Those are slots that could be filled with black programs.

“I think it’s our fault because we watch TV and spend more money on cable TV, and we don’t make our feelings known, and we don’t vote with our money,” Reid said. “The marketplace is adjusting in a number of ways, but are slow when it comes to adjusting for the African-American presence because we don’t pester cable and satellite providers and let them know what we want.

“The challenge is for us to get the word out. When we don’t demand our cable system carry our programs enough, there’s no penalty, there’s no price, there’s no sanction for any of that.”


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