LOS ANGELES – If you thought Hollywood took advantage of its Oscars platform last Sunday to push a civil rights agenda, check out the rest of the TV landscape.
This winter has brought a tribute to San Francisco's gay equality movement in the ABC miniseries "When We Rise," and prominent roles for transgender actors in Fox's "Star" and CBS' "Doubt." Later this month, Fox will turn over 10 hours of prime-time real estate to "Shots Fired," a star-studded drama that reflects the country's racial tensions through the prism of a fictional police-involved shooting.
Also on the docket: a third season of ABC's "American Crime" that will tackle class conflict in North Carolina; Showtime's "Guerrilla," a miniseries about attempts to crush the black-power movement in 1970s England; BET's "Rebel," a drama about discrimination and corruption in the Oakland Police Department; Hulu's "The Handmaid's Tale," set in a totalitarian theocracy where women are stripped of basic human rights, and Netflix's "Dear White People," a college comedy series that majors in racial politics.
Oh, and "Will & Grace" is coming back.
Go ahead and accuse liberal-minded activists of taking over the airwaves. Most of the celebrity conspirators won't mind.
"I don't think there's space for neutrality today where you can just go, 'I see it, but I just want to ignore it,' " said "Slumdog Millionaire" star Freida Pinto, whose character in "Guerrilla" helps form a radical underground cell. "I don't see myself not standing up for what I believe in."
Topics precede Trump
Much of the programming will come across as a direct rebuke to the election of President Donald Trump. While that's true in some cases — CBS' "The Good Fight" added a last-minute scene to reflect the Hillary Clinton-loving lead character's shock at the results — most of the schedule was set long before the Electoral College votes rolled in.
"The issues that are there have always been there," said writer/director John Ridley, who is steering "American Crime" and "Guerrilla," as well as an upcoming ABC documentary on the fallout from the Rodney King verdict. "These stories would be told irrespective of who was in the Oval Office. If we try to be oh-so-current, than we miss the bigger picture of the longer game."
"Scandal" executive producer Shonda Rhimes warns her millions of "gladiators" not to draw too many parallels between the fictional and factual U.S. capitals.
"Sometimes we hit things that happen in real life, but that's because we read all of the paper and are extrapolating forward the same way the world is," she said. "But most of the time, we are just trying to tell the best stories we can. It's not about what's happening in real life. It's about being creative."
But the current climate will affect how viewers respond to programs, just as breaking news affected the actors during filming. Mack Wilds, who plays a police officer in "Shots Fired," admits he had a hard time putting on the uniform the day after Philando Castile was shot and killed by a police officer in Falcon Heights in July.
"I couldn't even stand to look at it, you know?" he said. "It kind of turned up the knob on how intense everything felt."
Co-star Richard Dreyfuss said the cast was aware during filming that their performances would resonate. "It was happening when we shot, and it was happening when we left," he said. "When you watch this show, you're going to be reminded very clearly of the most current headlines in your life. This doesn't say it happened two days ago. It's now. This is America."
'Rise' fell flat in ratings
The fact that these stories are relevant doesn't guarantee that audiences will tune in. In fact, evidence suggests that they might prefer comfort food.
After 9/11, the NBC sitcom "Friends" jumped from No. 5 to the top of the ratings and stayed there for more than a year — even though the New York-set series never once addressed the World Trade Center attacks. "American Idol," the ultimate example of escapism, debuted less than a year after the 2001 tragedy and quickly become a juggernaut.
Today's viewers seem to be sending the same message. The season premiere of "The Voice" crushed last Monday's premiere of "When We Rise," which lost more than 20 percent of its audience in the second hour.
"American Crime" is one of the least-watched series on network television, averaging fewer than 3.8 million viewers last season. Yet, despite the long odds — TV by the Numbers, a website that tracks Nielsen ratings, gave it a "zero percent" chance of surviving — ABC picked it up for a third season.
"It's really quite amazing," Ridley said, "that a company this large, driven by overnight ratings and things like that, has really carved out a space to say that this show matters."
Sure, ABC executives may see themselves as advocates, but they probably also want to please talents such as Ridley, who won an Oscar for writing "12 Years a Slave."
It's unlikely that Fox could have persuaded Oscar winners Helen Hunt and Dreyfuss to sign for supporting roles in "Shots Fired" without a message-heavy script. "I want to work on things that are alive in me," Hunt said.
And there's always a chance that one of these projects could take off. ABC aired "Roots" over eight consecutive nights in January, a strategy that in 1977 signaled low expectations. It remains one of the most popular TV events in history.
"The Handmaid's Tale" executive producer Warren Littlefield is planning a reboot of "In the Heat of the Night," the film-turned-TV-drama about a white police chief and black detective who forge an unlikely alliance in small-town Mississippi.
"If it feels like public television — educational, a history lesson — they won't come," Littlefield said. "But if it's entertaining, powerfully relevant? Yeah, absolutely. They'll come."
612-673-7431 • @nealjustin
