"Empire" Flops Overseas as Foreign Viewers Resist Hollywood's Diversity Push

[Black Magisterialness]

Empire isn't that good of a show...

 

[Krispy]

People don't really check E4 like that. If it was on Chanel 4, ITV, Sky 1 or BBC it would get alot more veiws

 

[MikeyC]

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So cacs make up the majority of the international market now ? Bullshyt

For American TV, they are.

People don't really check E4 like that. If it was on Chanel 4, ITV, Sky 1 or BBC it would get alot more veiws

This. Those Empire figures are actually pretty decent for a chennel like E4.

 

[MikelArteta]

Empire is trash get that batty bwoy ish off my screen

 

[Capo Dei Capi]

For American TV, they are.

How so?

 

[MikeyC]

How so?

Countries Compared by Media > Television receivers > Per capita. International Statistics at NationMaster.com

(Granted the list was compiled nearly 20 years ago. I couldn't find anything more up to date)

Take those figures and relate them to the countires who would be more likely to purchase US shows, and it makes sense.

 

[The_King_of_Everything]

Empire sucks a bag of baby dikks

 

[Soundbwoy]

I saw the ads in the metro because it has been dubbed in French it looks even more ridiculous

 

[loyola llothta]

Yeah of course they did, because even though those shows had black casts, they weren't strictly black stories, they were family stories.

You could replace Fresh Prince and Cosby casts with white people and you might have a show that's just as successful. That's not to take anything away from either show, but "poor kid moves in with rich relatives" and "doctor lectures his wife and children" aren't "black" stories, they're just stories, they just happened to have black casts that reached across on both sides of the white/black and America/Europe divide.

But if you stripped Empire of it's blackness and replaced it with white people, you'd have a different/lesser show ie. Nashville, which averages a quarter or less of Empire's ratings in the States, but may/probably does better overseas, because "John and Kate" from Sydney or Liverpool are more likely to relate and understand the dynamics.

That's the point I was trying to make.

German people don't know people like Cookie and aren't familiar with the stereotype, so put her in a commercial and replace her dialogue with a German dub, and you'll have a bunch of German people confused and indifferent.

what? Cosby and Fresh prince are both black family show dealing with black

Will was the kid from the philiy project who single mother sent him to stay with his aunt and uncle because he was going down the wrong path in life. Also Will character is hip hop to the core and embodies that generation of black kid from the clothing in all.

the Cosby was just a well-educated financially secure black family doing they thing

Roots speak for itself

if you read the article closely they didnt compare the shows to shonda rhimes's bed-wenches tales. the “black faces but non-ethnically specific kinds of stories” was something W.E.B touch on it but that more black-ish and shonda rihimes's shows to me

 

[karim]

bullshyt. they say it themselves in the article, shows like the fresh prince or the cosby show were huge hits overseas and that was more than twenty years ago and with almost all black casts. there might be a bunch of reasons why a show flops overseas, but diversity of the cast isn't one of them.

 

[AquaCityBoy]

what? Cosby and Fresh prince are both black family show dealing with black

Will was the kid from the philiy project who single mother sent him to stay with his aunt and uncle because he was going down the wrong path in life. Also Will character is hip hop to the core and embodies that generation of black kid from the clothing in all.

Not to mention damn near the entire first season of Fresh Prince deals with issues of race and class divide.