After announcing their slate of shows for the upcoming television season, CBS is being criticized as people feel that the network is lagging behind its competitors in advocating for onscreen Diversity.

The network, which is consistently the highest rated in the overall demographic, took a particular pummeling with the departure of the Asian American actors Grace Park and Daniel Dae Kim from one of the channel’s flagship shows - “Hawaii Five-O.”

According to Entertainment Weekly, the CBS stop by the Television Critics Association’s press tour displays that the network is still continuing to defend its record on diversity.

'Change is Happening'

CBS chiefs Kelly Kahl and Thom Sherman were both in attendance at the press conference and they insist that “change is happening.”

They point out that a lead character in a midseason show is gay and that a 60 percent increase in series regulars from different racial and sexual backgrounds has been seen in recent years. The two executives sincerely believe that the network is moving in the right direction when it comes to diversity of their shows’ castings.

They, however, acknowledged that part of the reason why that they are having trouble inserting diverse storylines and cast members into shows is that of the number of veteran series that are being shown by the network.

Kahl and Sherman have also been questioned about the fact that they have an all-white casting department but they also justified it by pointing out their previous successes.

'So male, so white'

The criticism over CBS’ casting choices started last year when the six new shows from the fall lineup were all led by a white male actor.

This year, while Shemar Moore is starring in one series, the other five in the slate are still dominated by white men. This caused critics to start the #CBSsowhite and #CBSsomale campaigns in social media to protest the slow pace of which the network is going in reflecting the changing demographics of 21st century America.

With regard to Park and Kim’s departure from “Hawaii Five-O,” Deadline reports that they did offer increases to both actors.

“We made very, very strong attempts to keep them and offered them a lot of money to stick around,” Kahl said. It can be remembered that Park and Kim left the show after they failed to get pay equal to the show’s white leads Scott Caan and Alex O’Loughlin.

In the entire lineup this year, “Madam Secretary” and “Mom” are the only female-led shows on the network.
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