Game Over. The Rise and Fall of Black Shows on Television

The cancellation of CW’s The Game, represents the final nail in the coffin for African American shows on network TV. Over the past decade, there were a handful of black shows, sitcoms to be particular, that saw the light of day. Once upon a time, there was a minor league network called The WB that gained it’s primary audience by airing these programs - “The Jamie Foxx Show,” “The Wayan’s Brother’s”, “The Parent ‘Hood”, “The Steve Harvey Show” and “Sister, Sister” (after being dropped from ABC) being prime examples.Meanwhile there existed another network that appeared to remain loyal to their African American base: The now defunct UPN, which showcased “One on One,” “Half and Half”, and “All of Us” and “Eve,” to name a few. In January 2006, CBS and WB announced that they would collapse both The UPN and The WB and launch a brand new network called The CW. From that point, decisions were made as to which programs from each network would be migrated over to The CW, and which ones would be terminated. By 2006, African American programs had been completely eliminated from The WB and it was crystal clear which UPN shows would get the boot as a result of the merger. “7th Heaven”, “Beauty and the Geek”, “Gilmore Girls”, “One Tree Hill”, “Reba”, “Smallville”, and “Supernatural” found a new home at The CW, leaving “Girlfriends”, and “All of Us”, “The Game”, and “Everybody Hates Chris” as the last Black network TV shows standing.The downward trend continued with the sudden cancellation of Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s “All of Us,” and was accentuated by the cancellation of the CW’s long running hit show “Girlfriends” two years later, in 2008. After 8 seasons, and millions in ad revenues, they weren’t even given so much as a series finale. When interviewed once, Mara Brock Akil stated that she was “ in talks with the studio and network on putting together a retrospective show which will honor and celebrate this landmark series, so please stay tuned.” Sounds hopeful, but that claim was made well over a year ago. So much for closure. SOURCE:CLUTCHMAGAZINE.COM