The CBC and diversity

I've made no secret of the fact that I'm a fan of Strange Empire, which is why I was distressed earlier this week to hear that it had been cancelled after a single season. The CBC has given no direct reason for this decision, but cited the fact that it was a "difficult" choice and insisted that ratings were not at issue. The CBC representative interviewed also mentioned a desire to make room for new programming, which I admit to finding a bit puzzling. Of their returning shows, two (Heartland and Murdoch Mysteries) are in their eighth season, another (Michael: Tuesdays and Thursdays) is in its fifth and yet another (Mr. D) in its fourth. If the network wants to make space for new scripted programming, why not retire shows that have already had a long run rather than cancelling those that have only aired thirteen episodes?  They also re-affirmed their committment to diversity, as the network intends to air a miniseries based on Ines Choi's play Kim's Convenience in the 2015-2016 season, and recently wrapped up The Book of Negroes earlier this year. While I'm happy to hear it, I remain unconvinced that a miniseries demonstrates a long-lasting committment to anything, because it is simply that- a miniseries. It will last only a few weeks, and when it is finished, it will have made no permanent change to the diversity of the CBC landscape. 

With that in mind, I decided to comb through the casting lineups of the CBC's original scripted programming, in order to see how diversely populated these casts actually are. I did this by looking up each show on IMDB, and counting through every actor with a significant enough role to appear on the show's homepage. These shows make up about half of scripted programming on the network: six other new shows have been announced, but their cast list has not yet been released to the public. This breakdown also only includes gender and race, as I have not watched all of these shows and cannot verify the dis/ability or sexual orientation status of the characters. This is what I found:

White male 

5 (Chris Potter, Graham Wardle, Shaun Johnston, Kerry James, Gabriel Hogan)

White female

2 (Amber Marshall, Jessica Amlee)

Nonwhite male

1 (Nathaniel Arcand, Cree First Nations)

Nonwhite female

1 (Michelle Morgan, Chilean-Canadian)

Murdoch Mysteries

White male

4 (Yannick Bisson, Thomas Craig, Jonny Harris, Lachlan Murdoch)

White female

2 (Helene Joy, Georgina Riley)

White male

8 (Jack Laskey, Warren Brown, Connor Price, Hugh Dillon, Dustin Milligan, Torben Liebrecht, Adrian Lukis, Julian Michael Deuster)

White female

3 (Evelyne Brochu, Lara Jean Chorostecki, Lili Bordan)

White male 

4 (Bob Martin, Matt Watts, Edward Asner, Dan Demarbre)

White female

3 (Tommie-Amber Pirie, Martha Burns, Jennifer Irwin)

Nonwhite male

2 (Al Karim, Middle Eastern; Pablo Silveira, Latino)

Schitt's Creek

White male

5 (Eugene Levy, Dan Levy, John Hemphill, Tim Rozon, Chris Elliot)

White female

5 (Catherine O'Hara, Annie Murphy, Jennifer Robertson, Emily Hampshire, Sarah Levy)

Nonwhite female 

1 (Karen Robinson, Afro-Canadian)

White male

9 (Gerry Dee, Jonathan Torrens, Booth Savage, Darrin Rose, Mark Forward, Mark Little, Liam Cyr, Hans Pettersen, Matt Tolton)

White female

4 Lauren Hammersley, Bette MacDonald, Naomi Snieckus, Kassidy Mattera)

Nonwhite male

2 (Wes Williams, Afro-Canadian; Suresh John, Asian-Canadian)

Nonwhite female

1 (Isabelle Beaupre, not specified)

In total:

White male: 35

White female: 19

Nonwhite male: 5

Nonwhite female: 3

Further reading:

CBC renews Schitt's Creek and Murdoch Mysteries, cancels Strange Empire