AAPI actors made strides on TV but future diversity is iffy

Mindy Kaling's "Never Have I Ever" stars a diverse cast.

With a snap of the fingers, relatively speaking, we have three shows on television with South Asian leads. If you count reruns of Priyanka Chopra's Quantico and Mindy Kaling's The Mindy Project, South Asians have gained unprecedented visibility on US TV.

The Asian Pacific American Media Coalition (APAMC) on March 24 heralded the premiere of two new television series on cable networks that feature South Asian Americans: the unscripted Family Karma on Bravo and the animated Mira: The Royal Detective on Disney Junior. The following month, Kaling's sitcom Never Have I Ever debuted introducing an Indian American perspective to the coming-of-age genre

For years, APAMC has advocated for greater diversity and inclusion of Asian Americans in Hollywood-produced programming.

“While South Asian Americans are glad to be represented, they also yearn for the chance to tell their own stories. That is why we applaud the entry of two new series that center Indian or Indian American life and culture.

Click here to read the full APAMC report.

“When APAMC met several years ago with NBCUniversal, we noted the absence of Asian Americans on the cable network Bravo, known for its pop culture personalities. We’re glad the network found a way to include us,” said APAMC Chair Daniel Mayeda.

The APAMC—the only organization to have graded the top four television networks since 2001—issued its annual Report Cards for the past 2018-19 season, assessing the four major TV networks on their progress toward diversity and inclusion of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) onscreen and behind the camera.

Although ABC and CBS maintained their same grades for Actors and NBC increased (from C to C+), the Coalition fears that the unprecedented success of Crazy Rich Asians in the Summer of 2018 failed to boost significantly the number of APA-led series on network TV. ABC had three pilots in contention that would have starred APAs (first name in the credits), including two that would have featured Asian American families. NBC had a pilot about an Asian American magician, and CBS was considering an Asian American family sitcom including Ken Jeong as a cast member. But none of them made the 2018-19 line-up.

“Since the APAMC began meeting with the networks in 1999,” noted Mayeda, “we have generally seen an improvement in the various categories (such as Actors, Unscripted, Writers/Producers, Directors). For example, in the 2002-03 season, onscreen representation of APAs was so bad, we gave two networks Fs in the Actors category. As part of the larger Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition (MEMC) —which also includes the NAACP, National Latino Media Council, and American Indians in Film/TV—we pushed the networks to sign Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs), create diversity departments, actors showcases, writers and directors programs, and other pipeline programs.”

But progress has plateaued in many cases for the networks, with Fox recording its lowest grade in the Actors category (D+) in the past 18 years.
The biggest gains for APAs now seem to be happening in non-network media, including streaming services Netflix (Master of None, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before parts 1 and 2, Ugly Delicious, Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj, Always Be My Maybe, Tigertail, Never Have I Ever, The Half of It), Amazon Prime (Man in the High Castle, Warrior), and Hulu (PEN15); cable channels Comedy Central (Awkwafina is Nora from Queens, Ronny Chieng: International Student), AMC (Into the Badlands, Killing Eve, The Terror: Infamy), Bravo (Family Karma), and Disney Channel (Andi Mack, Mira, Royal Detective); and theatrically-released motion pictures (Searching, The Farewell, Plus One, Stuber).

“While we continue to advocate for the networks to feature more APAs in leading roles, the Coalition applauds the increased inclusion of APAs in other venues,” Mayeda said. “We recognize that many of these programs and films would not have been possible without the training and opportunities created by the networks’ diversity efforts. But the networks themselves need to redouble their efforts to avoid slipping behind their streaming and cable counterparts in representing APAs.”

ABC received the highest overall grade -- a "B" -- for the third year in a row and led with the highest grade in five of the seven categories: Actors (A-; third consecutive year), Commitment to Diversity (A; likewise), Development (B+), Directors (B+; tied with CBS), and Writers/Producers (B).

CBS came in second earning an overall grade of B-, Fox maintained its C gradevfollowed by NBC's C- (a huge improvement from the previous year's F grade). 

APAMC members include Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, East West Players, Japanese American Citizens League, Media Action Network for Asian Americans, National Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates, Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund, and Visual Communications.

With the loss of Fresh Off the Boat and Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., ABC will be hard-pressed to maintain its grade next year.

In fact, with the 10th and final season of Hawaii Five-O, The Good Place, the single season of The Terror: Infamy largely set in a WWII Japanese American internment camp, the final installment of Man In the High Castle, the cancellation of the martial-arts dystopian Into the Badlands and the end Disney's Andi Mack, television will likely be lacking in an AAPI presence overall.

Long-running "Hawaii Five-O" with its diverse cast of secondary characters has said 'Aloha."

One area the networks can improve on is coverage of AAPI in the news.

“Given the backlash many Asian Americans have faced because of COVID-19, we urge the networks to also produce news stories on this rising concern as well as the remarkable contributions our communities have made to this country,” added Rita Pin Ahrens, Executive Director of OCA—Asian Pacific American Advocates, an APAMC member organization.

The AAPI audience is moving to other media for their news and entertainment. According to Nielsen, the Asian American community is the most plugged-in ethnic group and mostly depend on online sources for entertainment by AAPI artists, vlogs and communication via social media.

"After the mega success of Crazy Rich Asians,” says founding APAMC member Guy Aoki, “other Asian American projects have done well, including Always Be My Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and The Farewell. And the Korean drama Parasite became the first international film to win the Oscar for best picture. We don’t want to lose momentum and want to remind Hollywood that what we learned from those successes still holds true: people of all races are interested in stories about Asian people and are willing to pay money to see them."

Aoki adds: “We want the networks to re-commit to getting Asian American family shows back on the air, which people will gladly watch for free.”

Sunday Read: Is 'Magnum P.I.' whitewashing an entire state?

The “Magnum P.I.” cast with Executive Producer Peter M. Lenkov. (L-R) Lenkov, Perdita Weeks, 

Jay Hernandez, Zachary Knighton, and Stephen Hill.

IT IS IMPOSSIBLE to picture Hawaii without Asians or Pacific Islanders. However, on American television, the brown-skinned people descended from Asia and Polynesia who make up the majority of Hawaii are largely missing.

Hawaii has a Japanese American governor, a senator who was born in Japan, a Chinese American Lt. Governor. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the majority population group and hold positions of authority from school board members to the governorship. 

In the recent past, the island state had both of its senators were Japanese American and elected the first Filipino American as its governor.

Therefore, it wouldn't be a stretch to see one of the television shows taking place in Hawaii to feature an Asian American in a lead role.

Wouldn't it make sense to have Magnum P.I. feature an Asian American in the lead role? While Jay Hernandez playing Magnum is Latino and would not be out of place in Hawaii, Latinos make up only 7% of the state.


The joke among the AAPI community was that the original Magnum P.I. starring Tom Selleck was filmed on the island chain's ninth island where there were no Asian Americans or Native Hawaiians.

The Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA) is condemning CBS’ upcoming reboot of Magnum P.I. for featuring too few Asian/Pacific Islanders and is calling on the show’s executive producer, Peter Lenkov, to be replaced. Lenkov, who is CBS’ most prolific writer-producer, also is the EP on Hawaii Five-0, another reboot set in the Aloha State that MANAA says has been “white-washed.”

Now that movies such as Crazy Rich Asians, Searching and To All the Boys I Ever Loved have proven that Asian American leads are being accepted by multi-ethnic audiences, it would not take too much daring for the network to cast am AAPI actor in a primary role.

A CBS spokesperson told Deadline: “While we respect the work that MANAA does to foster Asian/Pacific Islander (API) inclusion in entertainment, their statement does not accurately reflect the current status of Magnum P.I. or CBS. Magnum has two API series regulars among an inclusive cast. Additionally, one-third of all the directors on Magnum are API,” including Justin Lin, who directed the pilot.

The spokesman also noted that, on all its shows for the 2018-19 season, “69% of our series regulars will be people of color, women, LGBTQ characters and performers with disabilities. Additionally, people of color and women will represent 46% of our writers, and 43% of directed episodes. These numbers have increased from last year and steadily over the last five years. CBS is proud of the advances we have made to create more inclusion on all of our shows, and we are fully committed to continue improving in this area.”

I guess we're supposed to be  impressed. The diversity stats cited by CBS can be misleading because they limp POC and women together.  White women are no more likely to be sensitive to Asian themes or characteristics than white men.

Magnum P.I., which stars Jay Hernandez in the central role of Thomas Magnum, is one of the few network shows with a leading man of Mexican descent. It co-stars Stephen Hill, who is African American; Perdita Weeks and Zachary Knighton, who are Caucasian;.

Tim Kang, a Korean American will play Gordon Katsumoto and Amy Hill, a Japanese American, will play Kumu, which means "teacher" in Hawaiian. It appears that Kumu will be the new Magnum's link to the all things Hawaiian. 

MANAA president Rob Chan acknowledged that “the show is diverse” but told Deadline that “oftentimes, Asians are left out of the diversity discussion, and for a show that takes place in a locale that is majority Asian, to have the main leads not to be Asian is offensive.”

CBS just doesn't get it. The network sounds like we should be grateful for the crumbs they throw our way. Magnum will give work for some AAPI actors. Like the sugar and pineapple plantations that gave plenty of work for AAPI farmworkers, they were forever the farmhands, never invited to the board room.

Citing Hollywood’s “overall lack of opportunities for Asian American actors,” Chan said: “We generally want a show to reflect the demographics it’s in. The show takes place in Hawaii, which is majority Asian, but if you look at the four stars, there’s no Asians reflected there. In fact, in the trailer, Jay Hernandez refers to four people by name, and none of them are Asian. We feel that time and time again there is a pattern of exclusion. And while some supporting cast may be Asian, they often times do not get as much screen time as the leads.”

MANAA also had issues with the show's producer, Lenkov, who filled the same role with Hawaii Five-0, which had similar issues with inclusion.

When the reboot of Magnum first became known, Chan wrote CBS saying that MANAA is “very disappointed that Peter Lenkov will be the showrunner for this potential series."

The original Magnum P.I. central cast also didn't include any AAPI actors.

MANAA and the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition have had a problem with Lenkov ever since CBS rebooted Hawaii Five-O in 2010. MANAA says it has spent “countless hours” in research and conversations with the network about “the offensive way” Lenkov cast AAPI guest stars “mostly as suspects and villains.” 

“In its eight seasons (193 episodes), every guest star who tags along with the team to catch the bad guy has been either white or black – except once when she was Asian,” according to MANAA.

(When Hawaii Five-0's stars Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park didn't get contracts comparable to their white co-stars, they left the show in 2017.)

“We think it’s imperative,” he told CBS executives, “that you hire an Asian/Pacific Islander to star as Thomas Magnum, and that the majority of the cast are Asian/Pacific Islanders. In the history of television, no series set in Hawaii has ever starred an Asian/Pacific Islander, despite the fact that they make up 60% of the state’s population. This would be a great opportunity for your new version of Magnum to be the pioneering show to shatter that racial barrier.”

MANAA's pleas apparently fell on deaf ears because the Magnum reboot was given the green light although two Asian American actors were cast. It is hoped that Justin Lin and the other Asian American directors hired will rectify the lack of AAPI presence and their one-dimensional characterizations.  

There will be one Latinx writer to help develop Hernandez' Thomas Magnum character but we were unable to ascertain if there are any AAPI writers. 

Inclusion is more than just a bunch of numbers, it also means the quality of visibility. Is the character making an impact on the plot or the actor just another red shirt (a reference to red-shirted crew members of the Star Trek franchise who normally the ones who perish, while the stars miraculously survive.)? is the diversity within the AAPI population represented, rich and poor, authority figures and laborers, contributing members of society as well as bad guys?

It's important for organizations like MANAA to act as watchdogs to the movie and television industry. Without their persistence and willingness to question the status quo, no matter how uncomfortable it may become. Hollywood decision-makers need to be pushed, pulle,  pressured and educated before they change their ways and widen their perspective.

Because of the hue and cry of the embarrassing departures of Park and Kim from Hawaii Five-0, CBS saw to it that the show's producers replaced theim with AAPI actors. 

It will take action of a similar magnitude to ensure that AAPI characters are more than window dressing for any series that are set in the state where AAPI are everywhere -- in all levels of society and practicing any profession, including crime fighters and private investigators.

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