Popular scripted series on streaming services showed a marked decrease in cultural diversity both behind and in front of the camera last year as Hollywood inclusion programs waned, a new study from the University of California at Los Angeles concluded.
The latest edition of the school’s Hollywood Diversity report, published Tuesday, found that of the top 250 most-viewed current and library scripted series in 2024, more than 91.7% were created by a white person, with white men accounting for 79% of all show creators – both increases from last year. Diversity also slipped for performers, with white actors cast in 80% of all roles.
In contrast, nearly all other races and ethnicities were underrepresented as leads in top shows or as show creators: among the 222 scripted series surveyed, only 49 were made by women, with creators of color only accounting for 8%. The report overall found decreased opportunities for female actors and people of color in front of the camera, despite minority households and female audiences driving viewerships for top series.
The report indicates a sharp reversal from the strides made in the aftermath of the nationwide 2020 Black Lives Matter protests over the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. That year, many streaming companies, as well as broadcast and cable networks, instituted programs to increase diversity or invested in efforts to develop projects by or showcasing more people of color, particularly Black people.
Those efforts have been largely abandoned in the wake of Donald Trump’s re-election and his administration’s legal efforts to punish so-called DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) programs. Disney, Amazon, Paramount and Warner Bros were among the companies that discontinued long-standing DEI programs in the past year.
“Unfortunately, this wasn’t unexpected, especially with the election results in 2024,” wrote Darnell Hunt, executive vice-chancellor and provost at UCLA, in the report.
Hunt, who co-founded the study, added: “When you shut the door on diversity, you shut out opportunities for more perspectives, collaboration, exploration and growth. Without vigilance and pressure, the industry will continue to invest less and less in these creators and stories to the detriment of their bottom line.”
However, despite the continued slip in diversity behind the camera, the study found that underrepresented storylines – regardless of the lead actor’s gender – increased in 2024. It cited numerous shows led by men, such as Apple’s Ted Lasso and HBO’s The Penguin, which devoted rich secondary storylines to female characters.
“Even as diversity drops overall, we find that the stories are still there,” said co-author Nico Garcia, a doctoral candidate in cinema and media studies. “When there are good and relatable stories, people watch regardless of who plays the lead.”
The study noted that such storylines, particularly among women, netted higher engagement on social media, with HBO’s House of the Dragon and Netflix’s Bridgerton as prominent examples.
“If a show features some kind of underrepresented story, such as a women-centered story, the median total interactions for these shows were talked about on social media more than five times than shows without,” said co-author Michael Tran, a sociologist.
The contentious bidding war among Netflix, Paramount and others over the purchase of Warner Bros, which owns HBO among other valuable intellectual property, has cast further doubt over the future of diversity efforts in Hollywood. Numerous industry groups, trade unions and anti-trust experts have claimed that a merger between any two major companies, particularly Netflix and Warner Bros, would hurt creative competition.
In a statement criticizing Netflix’s proposal to purchase the historic studio last week, the Writers Guild of America’s east and west units warned that “the world’s largest streaming company swallowing one of its biggest competitors is what antitrust laws were designed to prevent. The outcome would eliminate jobs, push down wages, worsen conditions for all entertainment workers.”
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