The top television series available on major streaming services in 2024 continued to display a lack of diversity in both the gender and ethnicity of creators and performers, according to a UCLA report released Tuesday.
The UCLA Hollywood Diversity Report on streaming television, prepared by the university’s Entertainment and Media Research Initiative, examined the top 250 television series — both comedies and dramas — available for streaming during 2024. The shows included newly created programs and older shows still available for viewing in streaming service libraries.
Of the programs that had a clearly defined show creator, 79% had creators who were white men. Nearly 92% of show creators were white, with 3.3% Black, 2.5% Asian and 1.1% Latinx, according to the report. Men represented 85% of all show creators.
“The gender gap for white show creators remained staggering,” according to the report. “White men, alone, represented nearly eight out of 10 (78.9%) of all show creators among the most-watched, scripted television shows in streaming in 2024. While their numbers were much smaller overall, Black and Latinx males outpaced their female counterparts as scripted show creators as well. Although the number of multiracial women exceeded their male counterparts, this group’s overall count was minimal. Among Asian and Native scripted show creators, there were no female show creators among the top scripted shows.”
When considering only current programs — not older series still available on streaming services — the diversity numbers “remained dismal,” according to the report. Of the 109 current scripted shows, only 17 had a creator who was a person of color, or 15.6%, while 27 had a female creator, 24.8%.
The numbers were equally poor among lead performers in streaming series.
“Among the most-watched streaming comedies and dramas in 2024, virtually four-fifths of lead actors were white (79.6%),” the report found. “Black (8.3%), Latinx (3.3%), Asian (2.2%), and multiracial (5.5%) persons were all underrepresented among streaming leads of top streaming comedies and dramas in 2024.”
Just over one-third (34.3%) of lead characters in the top series were female in 2024, down from 39% the previous year, according to the report.
Historically under-represented communities also got little recognition in storylines in the programs analyzed overall.
“Out of the top 250 streaming shows in 2024, about two-fifths or 39.2% featured one or more of these underrepresented stories,” according to the report. “When only considering scripted shows, the percentage jumps to 43.7% and when only considering live-action comedies and dramas, the percentage increases to 52.5%.”
The report’s authors concluded that following progress over the past decade in efforts to increase representation of woman and people of color both on screen and behind the camera, “there appears to be a scaling back of these efforts throughout Hollywood in 2024.”
“Rolling back on diversity on screen is a clear risk,” according to the report. “Studios may think they can take these groups for granted. However, those under 18 years old are already majority-BIPOC (Black, Indigenous People of Color) and will soon grow into the target demographic for ad-supported programming. They are part of younger Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and they do not consume media and entertainment the same way as older generations. It would appear vital for streamers producing traditional format TV programs to appeal to future potential subscribers with stories that they may find relatable and appealing. Studios and networks can do this by investing in creatives from diverse backgrounds and producing their stories.”