On Tuesday, CBS biffed their press tour at the Television Critics Association when they didn’t have any satisfying answers for questions about the network’s diversity problems. Jessica Chastain has responded by suggesting people stop watching CBS.
CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl and senior executive vice president Thom Sherman failed to address the fact that of the five pilots picked up last season, none were led by women, and with the exception of Shemar Moore-led S.W.A.T., all those leads are white. While discussing the matter at TCA, they suggested that the male-led pilots were simply “better” and downplayed the relevance of having an all-white male casting department.
Chastain has spoken up about representation in Hollywood before; in May, for instance, she commented that the representation of women in at Cannes Film Festival was “disturbing.” Yesterday in a tweet, she posted about the CBS press tour debacle, with a shout out to Netflix, HBO, Ryan Murphy, and hooking up, if “chill” means what I think it means:
CBS has not yet responded to the backlash, but the TCA panel was an opportunity to show up with a stronger response to the issues that are brought up again and again in regards to the network. Considering the recent controversy around the departure of Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park from Hawaii Five-O over a pay equity dispute with their white colleagues, the network really should have seen it coming.