On Thursday (Oct. 22), the Hollywood Reporter released its annual list of “Hollywood’s 50 Most Powerful TV Showrunners of 2020.” Total number of Latinx showrunners on the list: Zero.
The list was published a week after the outlet reported on a group of more than 270 Latinx TV and film writers, showrunners and creators who signed an open letter sharing their “demands for systematic change” in the industry. Their demands included hiring more Latinx writers and putting them in “positions of power,” greenlighting Latinx projects that tell Latinx stories and hiring Latinx writers for non-Latinx projects.
“As Latinx showrunners, creators, TV and feature writers, we are incensed by the continued lack of Latinx representation in our industry,” the letter reads. “Our stories are important, and our erasure onscreen contributes to the persistent prejudice that prevents real change in this country.”
Remezcla also reported on the open letter, which included the unsurprising statistics that the industry’s pool of writers only includes 4.7% feature writers and 8.7% TV writers who are Latinx, despite being 18.3% of the population.
With such a small selection of Latinx showrunners to choose from, maybe that’s the excuse the Hollywood Reporter will use for not including any of them on the list they released this week. Or maybe they shouldn’t: “We are tired of hearing ‘we couldn’t find any Latinx writers to hire,’” the open letter reads.
Even if that were the case, it only proves the point writers like Gloria Calderón-Kellett (One Day at a Time), Tanya Saracho (Vida) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) were making when they signed the open letter. It only proves actor John Leguizamo’s point when he decides to boycott the Emmys. The TV and film industry have a lot of work to do to revolutionize the relationships it has with Latinx talent. Maybe then, lists like the one the Hollywood Reporter published this week won’t look so out of touch with reality.