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Just How Diverse Has Television Become?

Jon FooTwo articles published today had me wondering, just how diverse has television become.

An article in the LA Times reported the 2015 fall line up could even be more diverse than 2014.

The pilots include a cross cultural comedy written by Korean American Diana Son and a television version of Rush Hour starring Jon Foo (pictured) in the role made popular in the movie by Jackie Chan.

Asian Canadian community activist Victor Wong has listed nearly 250 Asian actors who have appeared in co-starring or guest roles on television this season. But numbers can be deceiving.

An analysis by Fusion indicates Asian Americans on television are still severely under-represented.

Only three shows feature Asians as the main character. Six include Asians in co-lead roles such as Maggie Q in Stalker and John Cho in Selfie. Unfortunately Selfie was long ago cancelled and Stalker faces a similar fate. The Media Action Network for Asian Americans has written a letter to CBS urging the network to renew Stalker for a second season.

At the same time, the numbers give us reason to be optimistic. 37.9% of all shows featured at least one Asian cast member. 6.6% were considered playing main characters. However, what’s disturbing is that many of these shows are based in cities such as New York and Los Angeles where the population of Asian Americans is much higher than you would know watching these programs.

Opportunities exist to give Asian Americans more roles. Hollywood willing.

You can read a breakdown on the type of characters Asian actors are casted for in Fusion. You can get a look ahead to diversity in 2015 in the LA Times.

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