FOX and Black Audiences (Core Post 3)

I was excited to see that two of this week’s readings looked at race and representation on television through an industrial lens.  As Gray lays out for us, networks were pushed to target Black audiences not out of some form of social consciousness, but due to increased competition and the advent of new technologies that started in the 1980s (62).  I am especially interested in FOX’s arrival in 1986 and how their programming strategy has shifted over the years.  Gray and other folks like Kristal Brent Zook have argued that early on FOX explicitly went after Black viewers as a way to establish themselves as a new network. Gray notes that “The Big Three” took some time to realize what FOX already knew: “African American audiences [were] a ready-made, already organized, and exploitable market niche” (67).  When we assess the current broadcast television landscape, networks aggressively courting Black audiences with their programming schedules seem to be a thing of the past.  So, what the hell happened? 

After filling their programming with Black-cast programming in the 1990s, the 2000s marked a shift for the network as they became more competitive with The Big Three and FOX sought out younger male viewers that could bring in more advertising dollars (enter Seth Macfarlane).  When The WB and UPN came on the scene they attempted a similar strategy.  However, also similarly, a short time later when the two networks consolidated to form The CW the new strategy was to ditch most of the Black programming (Girlfriends and Everybody Hates Chris remained), and focus on programming catered towards (white) teen girls.  

I have become increasingly interested in the multiracial ensemble cast in network sitcoms and Black/White duos in procedurals and dramas. (Recent examples from FOX include Brooklyn Nine-Nine or Sleepy Hollow).  What do these models tell us about how broadcast networks understand the construction of audiences?  How does this fit into narrowcasting strategies?  In 2013 Eric Deggans at NPR reported that FOX explicitly framed diversity as a part of their programming strategy and was especially interested in finding and producing diverse series.  Their understanding of diverse programming, however, had shifted since 1986.  At the time FOX was touting it’s new “sleeper hit” Sleepy Hollow, which paired Black detective Abbie Mills (Nicole Beharie) with a white British spy from The Revolutionary War, Ichabod Crane, who had been plopped into contemporary America (Tom Mison).  Since FOX understood Sleepy Hollow as emblematic of their programming strategy, I think it’s worth it to briefly discuss how these characters arcs played out.  While the first season (which is incredible) positions both Mills and Crane as equal partners who are destined to stop the apocalypse together, subsequent seasons increasingly marginalize Mills and push her towards a more supporting role.  The main characters’ own arcs are a weirdly similar parallel to FOX’s transition from its early years to when it became more established.