New list scores TV, streaming series for on-screen and behind-the-scenes diversity and inclusion

NEW YORK — The hundreds of television series on U.S. broadcast, cable and streaming platforms, and the executive producers creating them, are the subject of a new list — one that scores them for the diversity and inclusion of the people working both on screen and behind the scenes. The Inclusion List for episodic programming, being released Thursday by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the Adobe Foundation, ranks the 100 highest-scoring broadcast and cable series that aired in the 2021-2022 television season and the 100 top streaming platform series between 2021 and 2023, as well as listing the executive producers who scored the highest across all their shows in that time period. The 29-year-old Mexican American knows that his background and life experiences impacts how he tries to approach his casting work, in trying “to introduce talent that I know wouldn’t be normally introduced in that setting.” It has a ripple effect, said actor Jurnee Smollett, referencing the range of women taking on roles behind the cameras. “I think the more women of all kinds that we see behind the camera, the more we’ll see change reflected in front of the camera.” Keeping track of the inclusion in the industry is even more important now after the labor strikes in the entertainment industry last year, Smith said, which disrupted life for many. “On the heels of the strike these companies need to be thinking about it, it can’t just be business as usual.” While inclusion and diversity is something that has been talked about in all forms of popular culture, there’s something particular about the power of television that makes who’s behind the scenes and on the screens creating the content for audiences to consume vitally important, said David Stamps, professor of public relations and media psychology at Bentley University in Massachusetts.