Diversity Study Shows Prevalence of Straight White Men in Power

Ahead of entertainment’s most exclusive and glamorous night of the year, The Oscars, a new study demonstrates just how exclusive film and television can be when it comes to women, people of color and the LGBT community. The results reveal that the prequel to #OscarsSoWhite is #HollywoodSoWhite.

The Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity (CARD) is the first of its kind — an exhaustive analysis and ranking of film, television and digital streaming services that catalogues speaking characters, people behind the camera, CEOs and executives.

Authored by professor Stacy L. Smith and released by the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the analysis found that only 28.3% of all speaking characters across 414 films, television and digital episodes in 2014-15 were from underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. This is 9.6% below the U.S. population norm of 37.9%. One-third (33.5%) of speaking characters were female. Behind the camera, a mere 15.2% of all directors and 28.9% of writers across film and every episode of television and digital series were female. Less than one-quarter (22.6%) of series creators were women across broadcast, cable and streaming content.

“This is no mere diversity problem. This is an inclusion crisis,” said Smith, Founding Director of the MDSC Initiative. “Over half of the content we examined features no Asian or Asian-American characters, and over 20% featured no African-American characters. It is clear that the ecosystem of entertainment is exclusionary.”

NEWS: Kimberly McCullough, Sean Kanan, Sian Blake, Daytime Diversity

Kimberly McCullough

General Hospital star Kimberly McCullough writes revealing year end blog, including having a brain cyst and losing a baby at 22 weeks
"My heart was so full and then it broke," wrote McCullough (Robin on GH). "I had lost my baby girl. It was too much. I didn’t need to learn this lesson. I wasn’t interested. But I wasn’t in control. These things happen and no, I don’t believe they happen 'for a reason.' I’m still processing, still healing, but anyone who has gone through it knows, losing a baby at 22 weeks is tragic. One thing I am proud of however was that I allowed myself to be happy and to relish the moment. I sat in all that goodness and I can recall those feelings (when I’m having different ones) and hope that it can be like that again."

The Bold and the Beautiful's Sean Kanan is youth ambassador for anti-bullying program
Kanan (Deacon on B&B) was asked to serve as a youth ambassador to Boo2Bullying by the program's director. The Bold and the Beautiful star was more than happy to fill the role. He visited Palm Springs High School in October to discuss his own experiences being bullied in his childhood. Sean told CBS Soaps In-Depth that anti-bullying “has been a passion of mine for a long-time."

Missing EastEnders star Sian Blake 'feared she would die from motor neurone disease'
Sian Blake, who played homewrecker Frankie Pierre in the BBC One soap opera in the 1990s, has not been seen since Sunday December 13. It has been reported the 43-year-old is suffering from motor neurone disease and that she began fearing it was getting worse. A neighbor of the mother-of-two, who lives in Erith, Kent, said ambulances had been seen outside the home in recent weeks on a number of occasions. Sandra Metzgen told The Sun: "No one knows where she is."

TV Insider's Michael Logan grades diversity in daytime soap operas
There continued to be a lack of diversity behind the camera in daytime soap operas in 2015, but Logan seemed impressed by some of show's diversity in front of the camera. The Bold and the Beautiful was rated an A, General Hospital was graded a B+, Days of our Lives was given a C+, and The Young and the Restless rated a C.

NEWS: Jonathan Jackson, Josie Bissett, Tom Payne, Jacob Young, Kit Williamson, 'Empire'

Empire Season 2 premiered September 23 on FOX.

Empire and black-ish Show Why Diversity Needs to Be Deep, Not Just Broad
It's valuable to have deep minority representation within individual shows, as necessarily happens on family comedies and dramas. Series like black-ish and Empire can pass a sort of racial version of the Bechdel Test, the feminist-criticism measure of whether a story has two female characters who talk to each other about something besides a man: having minority characters talk about race in a way that’s not always in relation to white people.

Is Empire the Most Important Show on TV
Empire did things to ratings and audiences that network shows aren’t supposed to be able to do anymore. And now it has to do it all again.

Writes Willa Paskin: "This moment, obviously, unfolds expressly within the context of Ferguson, Eric Garner, police brutality, a racist penitentiary system, and the Black Lives Matter movement, and it works on two levels. Empire is a chronicle of the Lyons clan, a black family in America who, necessarily, is engaged with these subjects. But Empire is also a cultural object, one whose enormous success pierced television’s largely white status quo."

Can FOX's Empire Continue to Rise in Season 2 After Becoming a Midseason Sensation?
Empire's ratings started high and climbed all season. In live-plus-seven numbers, its finale averaged 23.1 million total viewers and an astounding 9.3 rating among adults ages 18 to 49, making it the highest-rated freshman finale since Grey's Anatomy in 2005.

The network hopes to bring back all those viewers who watched last season, along with those who have watched the show on VOD and other platforms since its March season finale (episodes were viewed 500,000 times a week this summer), while also drawing in new audiences. "I think it is a matter of don't mess it up," said Joe Earley, COO, Fox Television Group, of the challenge facing the network.

The Bold and the Beautiful's Jacob Young expecting third child with wife, Christen
Young (Rick) and his wife, Christen, will be welcoming their third child in February 2016. The new addition will join brother Luke, 7, and Molly, 2.

Kit Williamson opens up...about Cal opening up his relationship in Season 2 of EastSiders
"The second season is an exploration of the role sex plays in relationships, so this time around, everyone gets a lot of action!"

Jim Henson "would have been thrilled to see The Muppets getting so much attention"
“Playing with the idea that the puppets are real celebrities, in a sense, Bill Prady’s whole show is taking that idea — they are real, they live in our world, they are celebrities, they have their own lives — and taking that to its natural extensions,” Jim's daughter, Lisa Henson notes, giving her stamp of approval.

Coronation Street live: as it happened
Writes Michael Hogan of The Telegraph: "I imagine the feeling at Corrie HQ, Granada TV and ITV Towers will mainly be one of relief that the live episode went off without a hitch. The performances were wooden at times and some of the segues between scenes stilted, especially from the less experienced actors, but the cast's stronger members compensated ably and the whole episode was well-choreographed. The scenes in the Rover's Return worked particularly well - then again, they're used to spending most of their lives in there. Not easy to produce and shoot crowd scenes, though, so credit to the cast and crew for that."

Nashville's Jonathan Jackson to perform at Tunnel To Towers annual run, walk
On September 27, Jonathan Jackson and his band Enation will perform for the runners and walkers at the After-Event-Celebration concert.This event will pay tribute to the late firefighter Stephen Siller. The run and walk follows in his heroic footsteps from the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, which is now known as the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, to the World Trade Center.

Tom Payne joins The Walking Dead
Luck alum Tom Payne will play the comic book character known as Jesus, aka Paul Monroe.

Melrose Place alum Josie Bissett to star in Lifetime’s Pregnant At 17
Bissett will play a veterinarian who discovers her husband impregnated a 17-year-old girl.

Susan Sarandon exits Epix's Graves
Sarandon will no longer play the first lady opposite President Nick Nolte due to "artistic differences.”

Jason Katims’ Hulu drama changes its name from The Way to The Path amid legal pressure
The religious cult drama starring Aaron Paul, Michelle Monaghan and Hugh Dancy had a title that too closely resembled real-life ministry The Way International.

Viola Davis at the SAG Awards: "It Stars From The Top Up"

Viola Davis

Accepting her award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for ABC drama How to Get Away With Murder, Viola Davis opened her speech by talking about her young daughter, who often asks her for stories. Inevitably, Davis said, her daughter includes one specific request: "Mommy, can you put me in the story?"

"It starts from the top up," Davis said, thanking the production and writing team behind her award-winning show "for thinking that a sexualized, messy, mysterious woman could be a 49-year-old, dark-skinned African-American woman who looks like me."

Watch her brilliant acceptance speech below:

Lawrence Saint-Victor Wrote Friday's Episode of 'The Bold and the Beautiful'

Lawrence Saint-Victor has written two episodes of B&B so far.

Lawrence Saint-Victor, who stars as Carter Walton on The Bold and the Beautiful, has written an episode of the CBS daytime drama which will air on Friday, January 16.

"It's common for actors to go into Brad's [Bell, executive producer/head writer] office and talk about where their characters are going, and during one of those meetings, Brad asked if I ever wanted to write an episode," Saint-Victor reveals to Soap Opera Digest.

"The episode deals with the aftermath of what has been seen: Maya follows up with Carter about their last conversation regarding Rick," Saint-Victor says. "That will be interesting [laughs]! We also see Caroline and Ridge contemplate if they’re ready to move forward together and Maya's baby sister, Nicole [Reign Edwards], makes her introduction. It was fun, but it was a little scary, too!"

Watch a sneak peek of Friday's episode:

NEWS: Dom Song Used Illegally in OLTL Promo?; NY Writer Diversity Tax Incentives; Sarah Michelle Gellar; James Sutton; Alfre Woodard; Kerry Washington; Eric Braeden

Dom demands his music be taken off ONE LIFE TO LIVE Hulu promos, says he's getting ripped off
Dom, the Massachusetts-born musician who gained some fame a few years ago with his breakout electro-pop hit “Living In America,” claimed this week via Twitter that his song was being used illegally for Hulu ONE LIFE TO LIVE promos.

"So @ABCNetwork @onelifetolive @hulu have used my music 4 over a year without my permission & have decided not 2 pay me #corporateamerica"

New York May Become First State to Incentivize Diversity in Writers' Rooms
Thanks to two new bills currently gaining traction in Albany’s assembly and senate, New York may become the first state to incentivize adding diversity to a production’s writing staff.

Kristoff St. John, Redaric Wiliams, Lawrence Saint-Victor & Aaron D. Spears Visit THE INSIDER (Video)

The 45th NAACP Image Awards are on Saturday and THE INSIDER co-anchor Kevin Frazier sat down with a few of the nominees for Outstanding Actor or Actress in a daytime series, where nine out of the ten actors from the combined categories just happened to be from CBS soaps. Check out the video below to see what the stars from THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS and THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL had to say about their nominations and the changing face of television.



45th NAACP Image Awards Nominees

Outstanding Actor in a Daytime Drama Series
· Aaron D. Spears - THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (CBS)
· Kristoff St. John - THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (CBS)
· Lawrence Saint-Victor - THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (CBS)
· Redaric Williams - THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (CBS)
· Tequan Richmond - GENERAL HOSPITAL (ABC)

Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama Series
· Angell Conwell - THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (CBS)
· Christel Khalil - THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (CBS)
· Karla Mosley - THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (CBS)
· Kristolyn Lloyd - THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL (CBS)
· Tatyana Ali - THE YOUNG AND THE RESTLESS (CBS)

TV One Signs Five-Year Agreement to Broadcast the NAACP Image Awards

The NAACP, the nation's oldest and largest civil rights organization and home of the prestigious NAACP Image Awards, has partnered with the TV One network in a new multi-media five year agreement.

Under the five-year contract, TV One becomes the television home for the association's awards show, beginning with the live airing of the "45th NAACP Image Awards" in February 2014. The multimedia partnership was jointly announced today by NAACP National Board of Directors Chairman Roslyn M. Brock and TV One Chairman and CEO / President of Radio One Alfred Liggins.

"Our new multi-faceted long-term partnership with TV One will bring expanded visibility and awareness of the NAACP and its important programs, such as the NAACP Image Awards," said NAACP's Brock. "TV One offers the resources and capabilities to reach audiences in today's broad media universe, therefore advancing the message of promoting and protecting human and civil rights."

WGA Study Finds TV Writing Remains A White Man's World

In its latest analysis of the state of diversity in writing for TV, the Writers Guild of America, West finds that while there have been some recent job gains for minority and women writers, the employment playing field in Hollywood is far from level. The 2013 TV Staffing Brief analyzes employment patterns for 1,722 writers working on 190 broadcast and cable TV shows during the 2011-2012 season, highlighting three specific groups who have traditionally been underemployed in the TV industry: women, minority, and older writers.

OPEN LETTER: Ellen Holly Reveals The True Story Of Her Time At ONE LIFE TO LIVE

Legendary actress Ellen Holly has published "An Open Letter to the Fans and Historians of ONE LIFE TO LIVE". Holly was an original cast member of ONE LIFE in 1968 and was a fan favorite immediately and throughout her run which ended in 1985. She was not the first black actor on contract with a daytime soap but was certainly the first black star of daytime and paved the way for future stars like Debbi Morgan, Darnell Williams, Kristoff St. John, Victoria Rowell, Tamara Tunie and others.

For any longtime fan of daytime television, the lack of minority characters onscreen has been obvious. As the minority population of the United States has grown in the past 20 years, the volume of minority characters on soaps has actually decreased. Why is this?

Stars like Rowell have spoken out in interviews (and on Twitter) about the lack of diversity not only in front of the camera but behind the scenes as well. What has been missing was tangible evidence, numbers, that paint a clearer picture that can not be dismissed as sour grapes.

Hall paints a vivid picture of how she was hired, what her salary was compared to the other "stars" of ONE LIFE, what really happened when she was fired from the soap, and the timeline of when she found out damning information which lead to her writing this new open letter.

Below are a few of the more interesting quotes: