A group of Hispanic advocacy organizations says CBS, whose top programming execs took tough TCA questions about casting diversity, has agreed to “record commitments to represent Latinos at the network.”
The National Hispanic Media Coalition says CBS Chairman and CEO Leslie Moonves met last week with Thomas A. Saenz, President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund and chair of the National Latino Media Council, and Alex Nogales, secretariat of NLMC and President and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. At that meeting they agreed to increase Latino diversity and inclusion at the network, the advocacy orgs said.
“We had a very positive meeting last week with Alex and Tom, and we look forward to continued progress and collaboration in the future,” CBS said in a statement, when contacted for comment.
The groups took no issue with CBS’s current representation of Hispanics, noting CBS has doubled the number of Latino regular actors since 2016, and doubled the number of Latino writers since 2016, while providing no actual numbers. The group also said CBS had agreed ” to hear an additional 10 pitches from 10 Latino writers/producers” going forward.
“The meeting last week was convened to evaluate current benchmarks and agree to commitments that will ensure that Latinos are well-represented behind and in front of camera at CBS,” the groups said in their news release.
CBS said last week’s conversations were among the annual meetings set up with representatives of various minority advocacy groups as a result of a Memorandum of Understanding Moonves signed in 1999. Signatories also had included American Indians in Film and Television, the Asian Pacific American Media Coalition, and the NAACP.
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