Racial Analysis on American Television

In 2006, television station The CW premiered a new episodic series for its primetime schedule based off now-cancelled television series, Girlfriends. The hit show tells the story of how a bright first-year medical student, Melanie Barnett, forgoes her acceptance to the prestigious John Hopkins medical school to travel with her longtime boyfriend Derwin Davis to San Diego to support his football career as a wide receiver for the San Diego Sabres (Mittel, 324). Melanie becomes friends with Tasha Mack and Kelly Pitts through an organization that consists of other girlfriends and wives of the Sabres known as the Sunbeams while Derwin is eager to be close to the team quarterback, Malik Wright, and other star player Jason Pitts.

Throughout its seasons, the show has gradually transitioned from football and how it impacts the community and ongoing relationships to a stereotypical sitcom about African Americans. The show is continuing now on its fifth season on hit station BET with even more controversy and drama than before. I am conducting my analysis on the episode concerning "The Truth Pact" where Derwin uncovers even more lies about Melanie's past abortion procedure. I am arguing that even though the show has slowly changed its original plot, it still provides a positive, informative medium for its viewers to learn of major issues in our community nowadays.

Aiming at two audiences, creators Mara Brock Akil and Kelsey Grammer developed a television series that initially captivated viewers interested in sports and comedy. The San Diego Sabres and Sun Beams have rules of their own they play in their relationships, which is something Derwin and Melanie must get used to. In just the first episode, one can already see how the new couple struggles to satisfy everyone in the football community. The interesting fact of this scripted television show is that it portrays the characters as normal humans who make mistakes and have relatable problems of their own even in a world of prestige. Despite this, the show was cancelled after its third season on The CW due to low ratings and viewer audience. The network also dropped hit-show based on Chris Rock's childhood, Everybody Hates Chris to make room for shows that would create more Internet buzz and word-of-mouth (Elliot, Stuart). None of the new shows were based around black people, which frustrated producer Akil who made the following statement, "Somehow, because my characters were of color, my shows don't count as much" (Evans, Erin E). When news of the cancellation was released, many viewers were quite upset just like Kee in Figure 1 who claimed to stop watching anything on The CW network.

Figure 1:

Later, cable network BET picked up the show and the show continued for its fourth and now fifth season. The Game had over 7 million viewers tuned in for the premiere of Season 4 and created the largest