2011 was been an interesting year for black television, especially black sitcoms. We’ve had the highly anticipated return of The Game and a gaggle of new shows such as Let’s Stay Together, Single Ladies, Reed Between the Lines, and For Better or Worse sprout up. Additionally, reality shows centered around black celebrities such as The Real Housewives of Atlanta and Basketball Wives remain wildly popular.

While all of this sounds so exciting and dandy, let’s take a minute to look at the figures and dig down below the surface. According to an August 2011 Nielsen Report, African Americans watch the most television. Specifically, Black women watch 40% more television than any other demographic, yet remain one of the most grossly misrepresented and disrespected groups — regularly minimized to being ignorant, loud, poor baby mamas, gold diggers, or the classic “Mammy” figure. With this type of viewing power, one would assume the industry would make more of an effort to cater to their most tuned-in demographic, or that African Americans would use the strength of their numbers to demand better programming. Not to imply that there should be a “black out” on television to match the viewing audience, but at this point we should be on the brink of a potential media revolution.

Considering the boom of Black sitcoms during the 90s and early-00s, our current offerings are puzzling and may even be considered a regression. While UPN wasn’t an official “black” network, with it’s merge to the CW, a popular breeding ground and territory for black shows, new and old, was demolished. Over five years later and we still haven’t managed to pick up the slack from where UPN left off.

The Problem:

• Little/No Network Presence – in 2010 and 2011 cable networks such as BET and TVOne began to venture into creating scripted series; TBS was also the home of four black sitcoms, three produced by Tyler Perry. I won’t go into great detail about any of those shows since they’re fairly new; it’s a decent effort, there is much work to be done. However, the black presence in mainstream, primetime TV on major networks is missing completely. Currently, there are no shows featuring a primarily black cast on any major networks, though many extremely popular and successful black sitcoms (hello — The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince, Martin, Living Single, My Wife and Kids, anyone?!) have already blazed the trail. There number of black actors on primetime television has increased slightly, though they are often only in supporting roles. We shouldn’t be satisfied with just a “token.”

• Negative Celebrity Reality TV – one area where you will not find a shortage of African Americans on TV is on “celebrity” reality shows. Vh1, Bravo, BET, and other networks are basking in the popularity of these cash cows (and that’s not a jab at the stars of these shows). Unfortunately, these shows rarely depict African Americans in a positive light — full of flashy people famous for who they slept with, living above their means, and conducting themselves as anything but responsible adults. Though many people write this type of entertainment off as just a guilty pleasure and can distinguish the behavior of the so-called stars from “normal people/real life”, it does have an impact on the general population’s opinions of Black people. Of course, not all reality shows with black celebrities are like this, and it is refreshing to see loving families and relationships.

• Unrealistic Representation – minorities groups struggle enough just to exist on primetime television, and when they do, they often fall victim to being stereotyped. Are we sick of the indignant black lady, Hispanic maid/gardener, the token black guy, and nerdy Asian yet? On the flip side, what percentage of the audience can really relate to the upper-middle class lifestyle shown in most of these new sitcoms? There is a middle ground — just ask a good portion of the 99%. Metaphorically, we’re still watching The Evans (Good Times) versus The Huxtables (The Cosby Show).

• Dated Ratings System – Nielsen Media Research is still putting boxes to monitor TV viewing in a few thousand homes every year and sending out journals for people to record what they watch. The data from this sample audience is extrapolated to fit the population and BAM! — there are your ratings. That may have worked decades ago, but this is the 21st century. We have the technology to be more efficient and understand our audiences better. Maybe we’re still not there yet for the same reason we don’t have flying cars like The Jetsons promised. Jokes aside, ratings have the greatest priority in what gets put on air and what stays on air. Too many voices are going unheard and uncounted. Social media has undoubtedly been a positive for advertising and networks are finally catching on to Twitter and Facebook, but there is still plenty of room for growth in obtaining viewer feedback.

 Solution:

• Have a voice – you may not be a Real Housewife of South Central or a future star of Olympic Wives and cannot relate to that. If you’re interested in seeing more programming that more accurately reflects your demographic, speak up about it — there are thousands, possibly millions more that agree! Tweet, Facebook, email the networks and let them know and get your friends to do the same!

• Seek entertainment elsewhere – web series are hot right now and have been for a while. They’re inexpensive to produce and can reach a wide audience quickly with less limitations on content. The comedy Awkward Black Girl and drama Anacostia are excellent examples of how successful this model can be. Alas, there are always box sets of our old faves and Netflix when flipping channels fails.

Really, Noelle? Another one?

LiveJournal, ClassFace (StudyBreakers), Blogspot, Tumblr — I’ve had phases on them all. I’ve maintained personal blogs throughout most of my teenage years, and as I enter my twenties, I’d like to keep that up, but make an effort to separate my personal journals (aka rants and ventpools) from my other work. There were some gems sprinkled in my This Side of the Universe blog, however there are far too many embarrassing posts from an angsty teenage era to ever consider referencing back there or restarting that blog.

I intend for this blog to be different from the others I’ve had — not much about me in particular, more so just about my thoughts about various happenings in the world, new releases, or topics that I wish to expound upon beyond the realms of my noggin.

Unlike my other blogs, my goal is not to develop an audience. If at some point I attract a consistent reader-base, wonderful! However, this time around I refuse to censor myself because I know who’s watching and I won’t be doing much promotion for this blog. I’m really excited about this though! It’s like my little secret (cue Passion Pit’s song of the same name).

Cheers to new blogging endeavors!