Although American audiences tend to give better reviews and ratings to diverse films and TV shows, a new UCLA report finds that nearly every minority group is underrepresented in streaming series.
Latinos remain severely underrepresented in the television industry, according to UCLA’s latest Hollywood Diversity Report. Released Tuesday, the report examined the top 250 series available on streaming, including both library offerings and current titles.
Overall, it revealed a steep fall in cultural diversity among 2024’s top comedies and dramas, as well as fewer projects created by people of color and women. For Latinos, representation on screen and behind the camera is scarce. Only 1.1% of the top streaming scripted shows were created by Latinos. Of the top streaming comedies and dramas, 3.3% had Latino lead actors and 5.2% were co-led by Latino actors. When looking exclusively at current streaming shows , 1.1% were created by Latinos and 6.2% were led by Latino actors. UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report dates back to 2014. The first iteration of the study used data that had been collected since 2011. Ana-Christina Ramón, UCLA’s director of the Entertainment and Media Research Initiative, says that this level of underrepresentation across all kinds of media is nothing new. “It’s a consistent finding in our reports. But the numbers are such a stark level of underrepresentation because of the fact that we're almost 20% of the population,” said Ramón. “Even when the numbers are a little bit better, they're never close to where they should be.” This lack of representation isn’t exclusive to the Latino population. The report found that four out of five leads in the most-watched streaming comedies and dramas were white actors, and white men account for nearly 79% of all show creators — leaving nearly every other race and ethnicity severely marginalized. The downward trend comes at a time when President Trump has consistently targeted and called to end all diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. As a result, much of Hollywood has followed his lead. Paramount Global changed its staffing goals related to gender, race, ethnicity and sex; Warner Bros. Discovery restated its DEI activities as “inclusion”; and Walt Disney Co. got rid of its “diversity and inclusion” performance standard used to calculate executive compensation. These findings generally defy American audiences’ preference for diverse content. The research shows that “a relatively diverse cast and diverse credited writers often resulted in higher ratings,” especially when these stories from diverse communities are live-action and scripted. This trend isn’t isolated to television — eight of 2024’s top 10 streaming films and 14 of the top 20 streaming films featured casts with more than 30% people of color, according to previous UCLA research. Despite the lack of Latino representation, Netflix’s narco-drama starring Sofia Vergara, 'Griselda,' was the fifth-most-streamed television of 2024. In Latino households specifically, it reached third place, behind children’s TV shows “Bluey” and “Bebefinn.” “The silver lining is that was very popular, and though it's a stereotypical topic, because it was made by the same people that made ‘Narcos,' it had a prestige factor that gets passed along,” said Ramón. She finds that the shows that tend to do well have to have a well-known lead actor, be of an interesting topic and be attached to something that is already established or popular. In 2023, the report included Netflix’s “Wednesday” at the fourth-most-streamed show and “The Last of Us” at No. 7, both shows featuring Latino lead actors. All three titles “have a high production value and are familiar stories” — as “Griselda” was based on a true story, “Wednesday” builds off the IP of “The Addams Family” and “The Last of Us” is based on a video game. “Regardless of which group you're talking about, it really has to do with these very specific pieces,” said Ramón. “The very promising finding is the fact that underrepresented stories, which include Latinx stories and other BIPOC stories, tend to do better than shows that don't, in terms of reviews and ratings.”
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