Desperate Housewives

Civil rights groups have long been clamoring for more ethnic diversity on the major television networks for years. They’ve recently released a report saying that progress has been made - but there’s room for much, much more.

ABC was lauded, however, for “Grey’s Anatomy”, “Desperate Housewives” and “Ugly Betty” which all highlight ethnic characters and are also some of the more popular shows on television right now. In the case of “DH” and “Ugly Betty”, both of which have major Hispanic characters, the network is winning over more Hispanic viewers than ever before.

The Examiner published the results of this report, saying:

In annual “report cards,” ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are graded in areas including their hiring of minority actors, writers and directors, development of programs with ethnic diversity and overall commitment to diversity issues.

This year, for shows airing from fall 2005 to fall 2006, the National Latino Media Coalition gave ABC the highest overall grade, A-minus, followed by a B-plus for CBS and a B each for NBC and Fox.

The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition gave NBC, ABC and Fox a C-plus each, while CBS earned a C.

In the coalition’s first report card, in 2000, the networks received mostly Ds.

There was yet again a sharp slap from Americans Indians in film & TV: The virtual absence of any American Indians on screen or in the industry earned a flurry of Fs and Ds, with just a handful of higher grades.

In separate statements Thursday, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox reiterated their commitments to diversity and pledged continued efforts.

ABC is “pleased to be recognized as a leader in diversity,” said Robert Mendez, senior vice president for diversity at the Disney-ABC Television Group. “Our mission is to make our programming and environment reflective of the rich diversity of the world in which we live.”

Of course, there is much work that needs to be done before any of the networks can truly be considered diverse, but ABC and “Desperate Housewives” has given us a great start.