Compared to the other networks, large or small CBS has consistently offered viewers fewer shows with fewer Latinos in front of the camera than anyone else, in spite of having a Latina at the head of the programming division for a number of years.
This year seems to be no different. But CBS is clearly on a roll, ratings-wise, with blockbuster comedies like Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men, and the most-watched dramas on TV like NCIS and Blue Bloods, so there’s little motivation to change much, or to take many chances. (It’s also interesting to note that of those four hugely popular shows, only one has a Latino in the regular cast–Cote de Pablo in NCIS–and in it, she plays a character of emphatically Israeli descent).
This year we’ve seen arcs by Latino characters–sometimes even playing Latinos–on shows like the aforementioned Blue Bloods and the now-cancelled Vegas. But with the cancellation of Golden Boy, with supporting actor work by Kevin Alejandro, CBS once again ends the season with only two returning shows with Latinos in the cast: the aforementioned de Pablo in NCIS and Makenzie Vega in The Good Wife, playing Julianna Margulies’s Anglo daughter. (Whether or not Miguel Ferrer will return to NCIS is unclear, as is the fate of the much-ballyhoo’d NCIS spin-off NCIS: Red, in which Ferrer is slated to be a regular member of the cast.)
The new 2013-14 season, at least in the fall, will be no different and no better when it comes to Latinos in the mix. Given its relatively high success rate, CBS is only bringing six new shows to air for the fall, as opposed to nearly twice that many on rival NBC. Of those six, only one has a Latino in a visibly continuing role: James Martinez in the role of “Gonzo Sanchez.” With a name like that, why are we not encouraged?
So: Vegas and Aimee Garcia gone, Golden Boy and Kevin Alejandro gone, no word on whether Marisa Ramirez will return as Danny’s ‘new’ partner in Blue Bloods, and other long-forgotten shows with Latinos like Partners and Made in Manhattan long-gone and already forgotten. And–as of this moment, anyway–one new supporting role on all of CBS to add into the mix.
Some things have a hard time changing, apparently.
