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Nielsen report: The Mainstream appeal of Black Content

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R

Redd

Member
Ryuelli said:
Not really sure what qualifies as a "black show", but Atlanta is good.



Is Spike Lee supposed to be good? The only movie of his I've seen off the top of my head is Oldboy, and compared to the original it was abysmal.
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Malcom X was amazing to me.
 
kunonabi

kunonabi

Member
This isn't really a surprise to me. There were always black sitcoms, movies, etc that seemed to be popular across multiple demographics when I was growing up. Hell, when I worked in a movie theatre Martin Lawrence movies always had predominantly old white people in them. If something is good people tend to connect with it.
 
L

Lionel Mandrake

Member
Atlanta is some of the best TV on right now.

I imagine a lot of viewers are connecting with it merely because it's not set in the Northeast or California like every other show.
 
D

DeaconKnowledge

Member
There was a hole in TV for years - there were always black shows growing up but once 2000 hit the best you could get was the black sidekick or love interest to white man show X.

Recently there's been a renaissance of Black shows on TV. I don't think Empire is even that good - it just filled a gaping hole that's been on network TV for over a decade.
 
S

Spinluck

Member
Angelus Errare said:
It's both. There aren't many because they're not given as many worthy roles. I mean we can sit and watch Hollywood prop up trash ass actors and try to give them a career even when all the signs point to no while at the same time not giving good/great black actors a chance, point in case:



One of these actors is amazing and talented as fuck in different fields who is rarely given roles to showcase that, the other is Taylor Kistch who was forced onto Americans and given the lead role for several multimillion dollar films that bombed one after the other.

Same issues Asians and Latinx actors/actresses face.
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Elba trying to slide up in there while Kistch taking up like 3/4 of the cover lmao

DeaconKnowledge said:
There was a hole in TV for years - there were always black shows growing up but once 2000 hit the best you could get was the black sidekick or love interest to white man show X.

Recently there's been a renaissance of Black shows on TV. I don't think Empire is even that good - it just filled a gaping hole that's been on network TV for over a decade.
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What I don't understand is what caused this? I would like to think show business was more progressive in the 2000s than the 90s.

And Empire is basically a slight tier of BET crap, which isn't saying much. But it hits a non cable audience and hit during a drought.
 
T

TheNatureBoy

Member
Survivor's Remorse on Starz is the most underrated black show on TV today, gets better each season with great performances and addresses a lot of good topics. Highly recommended.

srs3-first-look.jpg
 
P

pretty done

Member
Lionel Mandrake said:
Atlanta is some of the best TV on right now.

I imagine a lot of viewers are connecting with it merely because it's not set in the Northeast or California like every other show.
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It's just fuckin funny. That trans racial episode had me in fucking tears the entire time. I doubt many people care whether a show is "black" or "white" when it's as consistently hilarious as Atlanta.

I gotta give Glover some props, because I honestly didn't think he could produce such high quality comedy. Yea I'm the only dude on GAF who thought Community sucked.
 
P

PixelatedBookake

Junior Member
RxfL7Wz.jpg


If more black people my age can look up to positive portrayals of themselves on TV, then great. Lord knows I needed a character like Luke Cage to watch when I was in middle school.
 
I

Ivan 3414

Member
This Is Us seems out of place in this discussion. There's a black character and his wife and kids but I wouldn't exactly describe the show as a "black show". Granted I've only seen a few episodes.

Numb said:
Black people best American import
Pioneering everything
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Mm, not too sure about referring to black people like they're a commodity...
 
N

Numb

Member
neojubei said:
yet in most of the world we are hated for no reason but being black.
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Everybody wanna be a nigga but nobody... etc etc

Slate Soda said:
This Is Us seems out of place in this discussion. There's a black character and his wife and kids but I wouldn't exactly describe the show as a "black show". Granted I've only seen a few episodes.



Mm, not too sure about referring to black people like they're a commodity...
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Culture it is.
 
S

Slayven

Member
Slate Soda said:
This Is Us seems out of place in this discussion. There's a black character and his wife and kids but I wouldn't exactly describe the show as a "black show". Granted I've only seen a few episodes.



Mm, not too sure about referring to black people like they're a commodity...
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A lot of Randall and Jack's arcs deal with Randall being black.

Jack is the white Uncle Phil
 
A

AlfonzoPalutena

Member
SG-17 said:
What qualifies as a black show? Written and produced by black writers and producers? Half or more of the primary cast black? Just the main character?


For example, is The Flash a black show because of the Wests?


Nielsen doesn't want to load for me at work, so apologies if they defined it in the article.
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Or what about something like The Eric Andre Show? There's two main characters, Eric and Hannibal. They're both black. Everyone else is unnamed or around for a single episode, or their name is Kraft Punk. Yet the show has nothing that really relates to race at all. It's weird and uncomfortable, and completely detached from reality in many ways.
 
K

kirblar

Member
kunonabi said:
This isn't really a surprise to me. There were always black sitcoms, movies, etc that seemed to be popular across multiple demographics when I was growing up. Hell, when I worked in a movie theatre Martin Lawrence movies always had predominantly old white people in them. If something is good people tend to connect with it.
Click to expand...
There's two subsets here depending on where they're aiming at- Fresh Prince was aimed at a general audience, while Tyler Perry's stuff is targeting a specific demographic. There's nothing wrong with one approach vs the other, but the former approach completely fell off in the '00s on network TV. Bernie Mac Show was the last of those post-Cosby sitcoms I can recall breaking out.
What I don't understand is what caused this? I would like to think show business was more progressive in the 2000s than the 90s.

And Empire is basically a slight tier of BET crap, which isn't saying much. But it hits a non cable audience and hit during a drought.
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The rise of hyper-specific demographic targeting and the rise of cable/segmentation. Everything became about targeting specific demographics you wanted (NBC had a bunch of low rated shows that survived because well-off white people watched them) and shows that would have formerly shown up on mainstream TV networks kept getting pushed off, first to CW/UPN, then cable.
 
B

BKatastrophe

Member
pretty done said:
It's just fuckin funny. That trans racial episode had me in fucking tears the entire time. I doubt many people care whether a show is "black" or "white" when it's as consistently hilarious as Atlanta.

I gotta give Glover some props, because I honestly didn't think he could produce such high quality comedy. Yea I'm the only dude on GAF who thought Community sucked.
Click to expand...

We must not be posting on the same site.
 
S

Slayven

Member
pretty done said:
It's just fuckin funny. That trans racial episode had me in fucking tears the entire time. I doubt many people care whether a show is "black" or "white" when it's as consistently hilarious as Atlanta.

I gotta give Glover some props, because I honestly didn't think he could produce such high quality comedy. Yea I'm the only dude on GAF who thought Community sucked.
Click to expand...

I mean Glover cut his teeth writing for writing 30 Rock. Dude knows his shit
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
TheNatureBoy said:
Survivor's Remorse on Starz is the most underrated black show on TV today, gets better each season with great performances and addresses a lot of good topics. Highly recommended.
Click to expand...

I really tried to watch that show and muddled through the entire first season but I just thought it was too much on the drama and too low on the comedy / fun. By contrast I really enjoyed Ballers much more. Of course it doesn't help that The Rock is like the most charismatic actor on the planet whereas everyone on Survivors is just mid tier.

One thing i think that is really missing in all these things is that the quality of a scripted show is 200% dependent on the writers. Yes, actors like Bryan Cranston or Idris Elba or Tom Hardy (taboo) can pull a 6/10 show to a 10/10 based on sheer presence and will power, but end of the day it didn't matter how good Bryan Cranston was, Godzilla still was a shitty movie as was Prometheus

I wish articles like this would focus more on the writers, a big part of why Atlanta is so good is that the entire writing staff is black and Don Glover gets them not to just write typical sitcom stuff. By contrast, while i enjoy Fresh off the Boat most of its episodes are pretty run of the mill and it gets a lot of network interference in terms of "make this story something EVERYONE can appreciate, not just asian viewers". Even the guy the show is based off has railed against the network, many times. Of course running a network show that has 22 episodes per year is far, far different than a cable TV show that has 10 episodes every 2 years.
 
D

daffy

Banned
Linkura said:
People of every color like quality content regardless of the color of the performers. What a surprise!
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Well, it is a bit surprising because you often hear of white people using the excuse "i dont get it" or "not for me" when referring to black experiences. How many of these people that watch Atlanta and Empire will try to understand the struggles of black America in their daily lives?
 
S

Sou Da

Member
pretty done said:
It's just fuckin funny. That trans racial episode had me in fucking tears the entire time. I doubt many people care whether a show is "black" or "white" when it's as consistently hilarious as Atlanta.

I gotta give Glover some props, because I honestly didn't think he could produce such high quality comedy. Yea I'm the only dude on GAF who thought Community sucked.
Click to expand...

I genuinely enjoyed his stand up and was dismayed when he went to rap.
 
P

PixelatedBookake

Junior Member
LionPride said:
Good thing we got Awaken My Love because Camp and BTI are two corny ass projects lookin back
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Yeah I'm glad he's moving away from rap. No matter how hard I try to go back, his"I wanna fuck asian girls" schtick he throws here and there always turned my off. Also him rapping about his feelings, like, at all. Some rappers can pull it off but Glover comes off as corny when he does it.
 
L

LionPride

Banned
PixelatedBookake said:
Yeah I'm glad he's moving away from rap. No matter how hard I try to go back, his"I wanna fuck asian girls" schtick he throws here and there always turned my off. Also him rapping about his feelings, like, at all. Some rappers can pull it off but Glover comes off as corny when he does it.
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He said he bit Drake and Kanye

You can tell hard

I forgot Chance was on BTI tho. Was interesting.
 
L

lightskintwin

Banned
caliph95 said:
Because there isn't a lot bankable minority actors partly because there either aren't many compared to white or they don't get much worthy roles. However because of that there isn't many bankable. It's a circle.
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It's not, because "Black films" having been doing well for decades domestically and Hollywood is still often reluctant to give any of those actors an opportunity as opposed to somebody who has unknown value as a lead in the box office marketplace.

The reason is because Hollywood stories are primarily built for White actors, that's it. From the remakes of older films and TV, book and musical adaptations, true stories, IP adaptations (Comics, cartoons, video games, etc...), fairly tales and folklore primarily come from White sources.
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
Oh sure, when it comes to entertainment, we'll consume and speak all the black we can get. But when it comes to rights and righting social injustices, suddenly we are divided or sitting on the sidelines tut-tuting not wanting to get black on our hands.
 
IrishNinja

IrishNinja

Member
i mean, i guess

i just wish the main character in GTA: SA was more relatable and less...urban, you know? nothing racist, just different strokes
 
C

Claude Augario

Member
Was there ever any study/analysis about the whitewashing of TV in the 00's? The culling of UPN was a factor but by then, all the color had already been scraped off the big networks. It's just really crazy to go from highs of the 90's to just...nothing. Who the hell was calling those shots?
 
J

Joni

Member
I think Shonda helped a lot. Scandal and How To Get Away With Murder are/were powerhouses worldwide.

Claude Augario said:
Was there ever any study/analysis about the whitewashing of TV in the 00's? The culling of UPN was a factor but by then, all the color had already been scraped off the big networks. It's just really crazy to go from highs of the 90's to just...nothing. Who the hell was calling those shots?
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I remember stuff like One On One, Everybody Hates Chris and My Wife and Kids from that period. The latter they are still repeating where I live.
 
A

A Fish Aficionado

I am going to make it through this year if it kills me
Hidden Figures, while at times being saccharine about history and violence against minorities does make a precedent.

Black or minority led films are risky by chairholders, and pollsters, not by empirical metrics.
 
E

Enzom21

Member
Ryuelli said:
Not really sure what qualifies as a "black show", but Atlanta is good.



Is Spike Lee supposed to be good? The only movie of his I've seen off the top of my head is Oldboy, and compared to the original it was abysmal.
Click to expand...
rs_500x281-150209094336-prince.gif

Do you ever get tired of posting nonsense?
Slate Soda said:
This Is Us seems out of place in this discussion.
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Most of the show revolves around Randal and his storyline is the most interesting.
They also have black writers so how they're written seems genuine.
 
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