CBS Has Plenty of Reasons to Build a More Diverse Prime Time Lineup — And Bolstering Its Financial Situation Is At The Top

What’s the point of diversity on TV? Is it a reflection of corporate responsibility to provide opportunities to a diverse group of talent? Is it the idea that a network’s programming should look like America? Is it that shifts in demographics and viewing trends have made more diverse programming more desirable?

As I write this, the alternating images atop CBS.com feature several of CBS’s top shows. Across the five images, 18 of the 19 people are white. CBS’s fall lineup includes mostly white procedurals (NCIS, Criminal Minds, Limitless), mostly white ensemble dramas (Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, Code Black), and mostly white comedies (The Big Bang Theory, Mike and Molly, Mom). CBS does not have a single show on its fall schedule with a predominantly non-white cast. The biggest non-white star on a fall CBS show is, well, there really isn’t one.

A CBS defense of its primetime programming would go something like this: CBS became the most-watched TV network by reaching a broad cross-section of the U.S. population, two-thirds of which is white, and the CBS-owned Showtime premium-cable network has more racial and LGBT diversity because it appeals to a smaller, more specific, more diverse audience that is looking for more racial and LGBT diversity in its TV viewing.

But that isn’t what CBS is saying and, over the next several months and into next TV season, will be at less what CBS is actually doing. CBS Entertainment president Glenn Geller (pictured at right) got a positive reception from TV critics and reporters last week — his first Television Critics Association press tour since becoming president of the network — by emphasizing a shift to more diverse programming and the fact that he is openly gay.

Geller emphasized that CBS midseason shows like Rush Hour and Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders will have broadly diverse casts and that the Nancy Drew series in development for next season will have a non-white star. Geller also said he’s a fan of reality TV and will continue the network’s commitment to shows like Survivor and Big Brother that offer good opportunities for casting diverse groups.

“We’re not casting color blind,” he said during the press tour appearance. “We’re casting color-conscious.”

Geller didn’t talk much about his plans for fall, but the first drama that he ordered to pilot for next season is a legal drama co-starring Dule Hill (Psych), Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black), and Kobi Libii (Alpha House). Up-and-coming comedian Jermaine Fowler is developing a multi-cam sitcom for CBS and a one-hour comedy special for Showtime. The new Star Trek series for the CBS All Access streaming video service will — if previous Star Trek iterations and CBS’s current trajectory are any indication — have a multi-ethnic cast.

The presence of CBS All Access as a freestanding platform is the big hint that the network is acting on more than an egalitarian impulse with its move toward greater diversity in prime time. For a TV network in 2016 — and especially for a streaming-video service — diversity is increasingly becoming good for business. The millennials who dominate the cord-cutting, cord-nevering, cord-cobbling market for SVOD services place much more value on racial and LGBT diversity than do older generations.

And the shows on SVOD networks are increasingly intended for a global audience. Netflix, which has a huge and growing lineup of not just diverse but globally diverse original programming, launched in in 130 new countries last week to become the first truly global SVOD service and could spark a wave of expansions and consolidations among other global media companies.

FOX’s Empire and Brooklyn Nine-Nine are diverse shows with broad audiences, and new show Rosewood starring Morris Chestnut got a full-season order. ABC’s Quantico, which stars former Miss World and popular Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, is dubbed into 44 languages, is already airing in India, and will expand to more countries in 2016. NBC’s Telenovela and Superstore, which star Latina actresses, will also have international expansions in 2016. FOX, ABC, NBC and CBS are all U.S. TV networks as well as studios that produce shows for international markets.

The new Star Trek series that will premiere on CBS All Access in January 2017 will be distributed, as CBS noted in its announcement, “concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studio International.” For now, that means CBS will produce the series and put together a country-by-country plan to distribute it globally. CBS, whose Showtime network expanded last year to Canada and revealed plans for an international expansion, has the motive, the means, and the opportunity to become a global content distributor.

To make that kind of international leap, CBS will need content that appeals internationally. That means shows that are relatable in Europe, in South America, in India, and in Asian markets. That, CBS says, means a Nancy Drew starring a European, Latina, Indian or Asian.

That’s not just providing a range of voices or “the right thing to do,” though it’s definitely those things.

It’s also good business.

Scott Porch writes about the streaming-media industry for Decider. He is also a contributing writer for Signature and The Daily Beast. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.