‘Undercovers’ Cancellation About Two African American Leads? Or is it Just America?
‘Undercovers’ Cancellation About Two African American Leads? Or is it Just America?…JJ Abrams, the producer of ‘Undercovers’ along with a lot of people in the higher echelon of broadcasting will be asking themselves that question. Fair or not, NBC tried two shows this new season with minorities leading the way and both have been recycled to the canceled bin.
'Undercovers' - Boris Kadjoe as Steven Bloom, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Samantha Bloom
First gone and gone pretty quickly was ‘Outlaw’ with Hispanic lead Jimmy Smits. That program lasted a few episodes before being sent away by the network because no one watched it. And although Jimmy Smits is always truly engaging, it was a really tough show to watch.
Now comes ‘Undercovers’ with two African American leads, Boris Kodjoe and Gugu Mbatha-Raw who were actually two really good looking people but again tough to watch the content of the show.
Why?
Both programs were just downright cheesy, as the kids would say. Us older folks prefer using corny as a way to describe these programs.
But one question going in to this television season was the ability for African American leads to carry a prime time show on a major network and this experiment seems to have failed. But why?
First off a bit of humor. As a guy Boris Kodjoe is just too good looking to bring in to your home at night. Too much competition for the wife and girlfriend, right? And women don’t want Miss Mbatha-Raw bouncing around in Hi Def either when their husband or boyfriend forgets that the NBA League Pass package is free for a short time and lack the memory to find Channels 700 and above for sports rather than the Spice Network.
But here’s the real deal. This is America. And with the very difficult election we just witnessed, the fervor against immigration that will continue to fester, the whole Muslim thing going on in New York and yes we have a black President who is under significant fire every day, the ability to separate that even from our night time entertainment will doom shows like ‘Outlaw’ and Undercovers.’
Let’s be real and not hold back on the truth. America has taken a very clear step back from the racial issues that are at the forefront of people’s minds and have immersed them in to prime time television viewing.
I could go on but that’s not the only reason for the demise of these shows.
It’s time for Hollywood and others in the television business to realize that minorities just don’t watch BET and TVONE. That good programming is good programming. Period. Growing up as an African American kid we had to watch shows with African American performers because that’s how we maintained our image and identity.
Those were the 70′s!
That is no longer the case as minorities have integrated themselves in all forms of programs on television. Which is actually a good thing for this group. To understand the diversity of America is to understand that watching programming beyond just those featuring African American or Hispanic characters is an asset. And important to growth in this difficult environment for minorities. We have no choice.
And we will be better off for that choice.
Unfortunately those not of minority descent have no motivation to look beyond themselves to immerse in to the world of watching minority leads on television. And with the continuation of this nasty environment that quite frankly isn’t going anywhere, the ability of TV programs to highlight minority leads will be a thing of the past for the time being. There’s no need. And with the significant investment made in both ‘Outlaw’ and ‘Undercovers’ the chance of seeing that risk again is none to negative slim.
The time is not right and the time is not now.
Just being for real.
Rick Thomas
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