How UPN Ushered in a Golden Decade of Black TV — and Then Was Merged Out of Existence

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

Reality shows are now go to for Black TV entertainment and its been that way for over a decade. Either that or anything Tyler Perry puts together. We have to acknowledge that reality shows became the new norm. And Tubi is the new version of UPN/WB

It’s cheap to produce with profit margins, so it makes total sense.

The bread just isn’t there in scripted content unless you’re a high level TV show.

The irony is that they did the pivot to The CW while gutting those shows, yet still struggled to make a profit.

 

[FukkaPaidEmail]

If we keeping it a stack UPN was falling off around the time of the merger .

Girlfriends and one on one was getting flabby .

Half and Half and All of Us was not Moesha and The Parkers (always hated that show but it had an audience)

It’s easy to say it was racism but the reality is reality .


Hell The Game came after and had a run.

 

[Devilinurear]

Streaming changed everything

 

[Wild self]

It's absolutely crazy how much we've regressed in terms of being represented on TV.

I grew up on "The Cosby Show", "A Different World", "Martin", "Living Single", "New York Undercover", "Moesha", "Living Color", and all these Black shows that I used to watch on a regular basis.

And even beyond that, there used to be new Black shows that moved in & out of the TV schedule every year up until like the mid '00s.

Now, it feels like there's less Black people on TV than there were 30-40 years ago.

After the Fall of 2006, that is true. 2006 was when they canceled Everyone hates Chris and everyone embraced the "New Black" BS crap.

 

[O.T.I.S.]

I fukked with UPN growing up… it was a good time to be alive.

Think they transitioned to WGN and now NewsNation, right?

 

[ReturnOfJudah]

UPN was trash. Fox was the shyt when they first came out. Had some good black shows

 

[Rell84shots]

If we keeping it a stack UPN was falling off around the time of the merger .

Girlfriends and one on one was getting flabby .

Half and Half and All of Us was not Moesha and The Parkers (always hated that show but it had an audience)

It’s easy to say it was racism but the reality is reality .


Hell The Game came after and had a run.

Racism is the reality. Girlfriends and One on One fell off due to network interference, and CW cancelled The Game even though it had higher ratings than the trash ass 90210 reboot.