Looking for Latino Regulars on Prime-Time Television
The Fall 2002 Season
Alison Hoffman
 
CSRC Research Report, Number 1
April 2003

On any given night of the week between 8:00 and 11:00 P.M., prime-time television programming can be seen lagging behind U.S. social realities. Its failure to include minorities in regular roles that reflect the plurality of the American public grows visibly more dramatic every year. In the 2002 season fall line-up, the vast majority of network, prime-time, regular characters were white and only 4 percent were Latino. Yet, nationally, Latinos make up 13 percent of the national population, three times their representation on television, making them among the most underrepresented minority groups on television. The viewing landscape of prime-time television is in urgent need of a more consistent inclusion of Latino and other minority regular characters.