CBS Programming Bosses ‘Feeling Good About Our Diversity’ With Fall Schedule

“We’re feeling good about our diversity,” said CBS Entertainment president Kelly Kahl, who spoke with reporters Wednesday along with top CBS programming exec Thom Sherman at a breakfast where they revealed the network’s fall schedule.

After the two execs were elevated to their current positions last year, they faced a barrage of questions about diversity and inclusion at the Television Critic Association summer press tour. On Wednesday, Kahl said that growing the level of inclusion in the network’s programming had been a priority going into this development season.

“We sat in front of a lot of you at TCA and said that we were going to do it,” Kahl said. “I think quite frankly there were a lot of eye rolls, and I think if you look at the schedule, we did what we said we were going to do.”

New series “The Neighborhood,” “Happy Together,” “Magnum P.I.,” “FBI,” and “God Friended Me” all feature people of color in leading roles, as do returning series “SWAT” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

Not present Wednesday was CBS Corp. CEO Leslie Moonves, currently engaged in a legal standoff with CBS’ controlling shareholder, Shari Redstone, over the fate of proposed merger with Viacom. Kahl and Sherman on Wednesday declined to speak about the lawsuit filed Monday by CBS against Redstone, but said that Moonves’ level of involvement in programming decisions had not been lessened.

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