Taraji P. Henson will host the 2020 American Music Awards, which happen Nov. 22 on ABC. Henson’s films include Hidden Figures and Hustle & Flow and her TV work includes Empire. The event happens at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. 

“The AMAs bring together the music community to celebrate what really drives all artists – the fans,” said Henson. “I’m proud to take the stage as this year’s host – and also a fan – for what promises to be an electrifying night of music.”

AMA nominees include The Weeknd and Roddy Ricch, which have eight nominations, Megan Thee Stallion, with five, and Bad Bunny, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, DaBaby and Doja Cat with four.

Dua Lipa will perform.  

Henson wrote the book Around the Way Girl.

The 2020 American Music Awards is produced by dick clark productions. Amy Thurlow, Barry Adelman, Mark Bracco and Linda Gierahn are executive producers.

Fox on Wednesday (Dec. 14) will launch its music-themed series Star, the latest entry in a genre that so far this year has hit several sour notes.

The series, which takes over the prime time timeslot of Fox’s hit music series Empire, will look to strike a chord with viewers who tuned out of several cable-based music shows this year.

After much fanfare and a second season green light, HBO’s Martin Scorsese/Mick Jagger ’70 s executive-produced rock ‘n’ roll drama Vinyl failed to hit with viewers, and was canceled four months after it premiered this past February.

Showtime hoped viewers would dance to the beat of its drama Roadies, which followed the lives of crew members for major performers. But the network canceled the Cameron Crowe-produced show before it opened for a second season.

FX’s Denis Leary-helmed comedy Sex&Drugs&Rock&Roll was silenced this past September after two seasons of so-so ratings.

While Empire continues to deliver big ratings for Fox, the task of developing a successful scripted series around the music business is not an exact science, according to Eric Deggans, the media and TV critic for National Public Radio, who is also a musician. While music has broad appeal, Deggans said viewers tend to gravitate to shows that weave music themes into otherwise dramatic, soap opera-esque storylines rather than shows that focus on the nuts and bolts of the music industry itself.

 “I think the way to have a successful show has been shown by Empire and [FX freshman series] Atlanta — you have to figure out ways in which the music is paired with some other attraction so that you get a wide range of viewers,” he said. “When you do feature the music, it has to be strong and authentic.”

Indeed, the Donald Glover-created Atlanta, which focuses on two cousins trying to navigate the ATL’s rap scene, has found an audience. The series’s Sept. 6 premiere drew the network’s second-biggest audience for a series debut, with 3 million viewers. Atlanta has already been renewed for a second season.

CMT is singing the praises of ABC’s cancelled country music-themed Nashville. The cable network will offer an early preview of its season-five premiere on Dec. 15 and  will officially launch the season on Jan. 5.

Star will get its chance to serenade television viewers with the hopes of making beautiful ratings music within a genre that’s delivered mixed results in 2016.

Pictured (from left):Jude Demorest, Ryan Destiny and Brittany O'Grady, the stars of Fox's new series Star, premiering Dec. 14.

As co-host of the 68th annual Emmy Awards nominations ceremony Thursday, black-ish star Anthony Anderson was overjoyed to read his name as an Emmy nominee for lead actor in a comedy series. 

He also enthusiastically cheered when his co-star Tracee Ellis Ross was nominated in the comedy lead actress category and when black-ish was chosen among the nominees for best comedy.

But Anderson’s humorous exploits were among only a few things the broadcast networks had to cheer about during the unveiling of the Emmy Awards nominations.

In recognizing the television industry’s incredible and unprecedented breadth and depth of content, the Television Academy this year leaned more toward cable networks as well as online streaming services like Netflix and Amazon when voting for the best quality series, original movies, limited series and original movies on television.

The big four broadcast networks were nearly shut out of the major drama categories, with Empire’s Taraji P. Henson and How To Get Away With Murder’s Viola Davis' nominations in the drama lead actress category keeping cable, PBS and online services from a complete sweep.

Moreover, cable nets and streaming services also generated a good portion of Emmy nominations for new shows that could rack up multiple Emmy Award nominations and wins in the years to come.

From freshman series such as Netflix’s Masters of None, which garnered nominations in the best Comedy and Best comedy actor categories for star Aziz Ansari, to USA’s sophomore thriller Mr. Robot -- a contender for best drama and best actor for breakout star Rami Malek -- the Emmy newbies were mostly from the cable and online arena.

That’s not to say that the broadcast networks are obsolete or incapable developing strong, new shows. But right now, the Academy has acknowledged that for this Emmy run the best and brightest new shows are on cable networks and online SVOD services.

Anderson’s enthusiasm for black-ish’s Emmy nominations could also be extended to television’s continued advancements in bringing quality, diverse shows, storylines and characters to the small screen. Non-white actors garnered a record 21 Emmy nominations this year, surpassing last year’s record of 18, according to Deadline.com.

FX’s American Crime Story: People v. O.J. Simpson and ABC’s black-ish led the way with multiple actors of color earning Emmy nominations, while the aforementioned Henson and Davis will again vie for lead actress honors in the drama category (Davis won last year, becoming the first African-American female actress to do so in the category). 

The stage is now set for a very fascinating Emmy Awards celebration in September. Bring on the winners. 

Multicultural-themed programming is riding a wave of ratings and critical success on TV, but that rising tide isn’t lifting all boats.

From Emmy Award-winning shows like Netflix’s Orange Is the New Black and its multicultural cast, to ratings hits like Fox’s Empire, Starz’s Power and ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat and Black-ish, ethnically diverse TV content is hot. But even in such a TV climate, executives at independently owned multicultural networks said their services still struggle to gain widespread distribution.

Even with a growing base of multicultural subscribers who watch more hours of television than white viewers — along with an increase of young, multicultural millennials who are either cord-cutters or cable-nevers — distributors aren’t rushing to sign up networks that target the industry’s current and future subscribers, executives said.

“Overall, 40% of the population is multicultural, so what all that means is multicultural is now the new mainstream,” said Tonia O’Connor, chief commercial officer and president of content distribution for Univision Communications, which also handles distribution duties for four-year-old, male-targeted El Rey Network and young, Hispanic audience-targeted news service Fusion.

“It’s good business to be in this business,” O’Connor said. “Whether distributors have come to embrace it yet or not, they absolutely have to in order to continue to have any growth in the future — they can no longer ignore the multicultural consumer or opportunity.”

A HOT CATEGORY

While most television observers recognize today’s lineup of quality content from cable, broadcast and over-the-top digital services like Netflix as a new Golden Age of Television, it’s also arguably the most prolific time for multicultural programming.

This comes as the U.S. grows more diverse, and as diverse groups grow more influential determining in how and when entertainment content is delivered.

African-Americans watched more than 44 hours of live and time-shifted TV a week during fourth-quarter 2015, well above the 31-hour average for all adults, according to the recent Nielsen Total Audience Report. Hispanics nearly double all viewers in minutes spent watching video on smartphones, while Asian-Americans use multimedia devices to view television nearly a full hour more than the general public does.

Given those realities, the assumption would be that multichannel-video providers would be aggressive in launching networks aimed at the growing, highly influential multicultural audience. But network executives said some distributors have yet to recognize the value of multicultural content.

Most high-profile shows with appeal to multicultural audiences air on mainstream networks backed by major media companies, Africa Channel executive vice president of content and global operations Narendra Reddy said, adding that independently-owned multicultural channels don’t have the budget or staff to develop and market such programming. But that doesn’t mean Africa Channel’s scripted movies and reality shows originating from the continent are any less valuable or appealing to multicultural viewers, Reddy said.

He added that most favored nations language in contracts, restrictions on social-media marketing and promotion of content on the Web, and a lack of negotiating power during contract talks have hampered Africa Channel’s ability to gain distribution as an independent network.

“Even if the heads of programming for these various distributors believe that this content that we have will resonate with audiences, basically they’re forced to carry networks from the companies that have far greater leverage than we do,” Reddy said.

That doesn’t sit well with multicultural viewers who respond favorably to content targeted toward them. According to a recent Horowitz Race, Diversity and Media survey, 64% of multicultural millennials said they found television shows featuring a mainly multicultural cast appealing, compared to 44% of white viewers.

Yet beyond a few select shows, network executives say such images are rare on the current lineup of cable channels.

STILL AN UNDERSERVED AUDIENCE

“A multicultural cable subscriber today sees his or her dollar being mainstream, but the reality is when they look at what’s being offered they’re seeing that there’s just not that much there,” said Mark Walton, president of sales and marketing for One Caribbean Television. “Even though you may see an article or some conversation around all of this, from the consumer’s perspective it gets back to ‘I have 500 channels and I only have four or five that are addressing some of the interests I have.’ ”

One Caribbean Television, which offers entertainment, news and weather content from such Caribbean nations as the Bahamas, Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica and Barbados, is currently offered on RCN with the network in distribution talks with several other operators. One Caribbean targets the nearly 10 million to 20 million African-Americans who have some connection to the Caribbean, as well as mainstream viewers who travel and have interest in the region.

“The consumer is paying X dollars but is getting X minus dollars in terms of value to them,” Walton said. “In order to breach that gap and reduce churn, you have to have the offerings that that consumer wants.”

Network executives said they recognize that MVPDs are under pressure to curb programming costs and adjust programming packages to prevent younger subscribers from churning or shifting to over-the-top subscription VOD services.

“[Distributors] might not be as confident to take risks on launching multicultural-themed channels,” Miguel Santos, general manager for Asian-American targeted network Myx TV, said. “The business environment is di_ cult — they’re seeing some churn, so it’s making a lot of MVPD executives risk-averse. They don’t really see at the moment the value of multicultural channels.”

One executive who said she does recognize the value of multicultural content is Verizon Fios executive director of content strategy and acquisition Michelle Webb. She told the Horowitz Associates Cultural Insights Forum in March that the telco is looking to balance that with finding the best ways to offer the most choice to consumers.

“It’s all about managing demand and bandwidth considerations,” she said.

Aspire TV has seen some small but noteworthy movement on the distribution front, vice president of business affairs and channel operations Melissa Ingram said. The African-American-targeted network, founded by basketball hall of famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, has seen its subscriber rolls grow to 34 million viewers since its 2012 launch; it projects it will be in 37 million homes by year-end.

“Not only is [the multicultural] audience is requesting this type of programming but … from a business standpoint, affiliates are starting to understand the importance of having diverse content,” she said. “They’ve seen the success of shows like Empire and they’ve seen a movement by subscribers demanding such content, which is forcing these large distributors to understand the importance and value of it and to get more content like that on their systems.”

As networks continue to push for linear distribution, others are exploring the Web in an eff ort to generate interest and awareness for their brands. Networks such as Myx TV, Fuse and One Caribbean Television use apps to give viewers a chance to check out video content from the networks, as well as some live programming.

BOOSTING ONLINE REACH

“If you want to reach a younger audience, you have to be available on all of the relevant devices, and you have to have content that’s available on-demand,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. “Obviously, you have to be able to balance that with the network’s role within the pay TV ecosystem, but I think that it’s all doable and important. Anybody that doesn’t have a strong digital presence does so at their own risk.”

Myx TV’s Santos believes networks targeting multicultural millennials in particular may find online distribution a more attractive way of exposing the brand to key audiences. Asian-Americans, especially, tend to watch content online on various mobile devices, so anyone looking to reach that audience would fare well in the digital space, according to Santos.

Myx TV is considering launching an OTT service in the near future, although Santos would not disclose a time frame. “OTT is possibly the key to diversifying entertainment,” he said. “Given the competitive environment and the uncertainty within the industry, it would behoove us to look at all options to really get our content out.

“In the end, the power is with the viewer, and they will decide where they want to watch their content — if they want to watch it over the top we should be there, and if they want to watch it on a linear platform we should be there, too.”

TV One’s acquisition of the cable rights to Fox broadcasting’s hit series Empire is a “game changer” for the 12-year old network, TV One president Brad Siegel said during the network’s Thursday morning upfront breakfast event.

As part of the network’s major deal with 20th Century Fox Television, the African-American targeted network in May will air every episode from the current season of Empire leading up to the sophomore series’ May 18 finale on Fox.

In addition, TV One will run episodes from the first and second seasons of the music-themed drama starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson throughout the summer, according to Siegel.

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, is the biggest acquisition for the 12-year old network, which is known mostly for its original docu-series such as Unsung as well as classic sitcoms such as Sanford & Son. Siegel told Multichannel News that the network had been negotiating with series producer 20th Century Fox Television for two months before landing the deal.

“For TV One, to be the home for the number one drama on television that coincidently happens to be centered around an African-American family and has the largest African American audience, is a game changer,” said Siegel. “There’s no more perfect show for TV One.”

The Empire deal was one of several programming announcements made during TV One’s upfront presentation. On the original movie front, the network will air 26 tele-films in 2016, including 14 straight weeks of original films from Memorial Day to Labor Day, according to D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production. 

The network will also launch several new reality series including Sneaker Pawn, which follows 17-year old entrepreneur Chase Reed’s New York-based sneaker business; and Family Bond, a docu-series that follows a family-owned bail bonding company.

TV One will also jump into the game show genre with The Dating Games, in which groups of families and friends compete against each other to correctly answer questions about the actions of two people on a date, Proctor said.

UPDATE:Upfronts 2016: Brad Siegel: TV One 'Empire' Acquisition a 'Game Changer'

TV One has acquired the exclusive cable rights to Fox broadcasting’s hit drama series Empire, the network announced prior to its Thursday morning upfront presentation in New York.

The music-themed drama starring Terrence Howard and Taraji P. Henson will launch on the African-American targeted TV One this spring following Empire’s season two finale on Fox next month, network officials said. Financial terms were not disclosed by the network, owned by Radio One and in about 57 million homes. 

“We are ecstatic to partner with 20th Television and Imagine in showcasing one of the biggest hits in television history,” said TV One president Brad Siegel. “Empire dominates the media landscape with a first-rate cast, original music content, engaging plots and celebrity guests. TV One is proud to be the exclusive cable network home for the series as it represents our brand promise to defy expectations.”

If money equals power, then Bobby “Axe” Axelrod is the human equivalent of an exploding supernova.

The astonishingly wealthy main character of Showtime’s hit series Billions, portrayed by Damian Lewis, seems to represent everything that’s equally captivating and reprehensible about TV’s most über-rich characters.

Yes, he may have risen from humble beginnings, and, as his company’s sole 9/11 survivor, he does now send the children of his former colleagues to college. But he also uncompromisingly controls a hedge fund where not everything is on the up and up, except the profits.

That conduct has drawn the attention of an equally ambitious U.S. Attorney (played by Paul Giamatti) who smells something rotten in Axe’s business dealings. No wonder the billionaire has a 14-karat gold chip on his shoulder.

“When did it become a crime to succeed in this country?” Axe ironically asks a financial reporter in the series pilot. “America used to salute the guy in the limousine. They wanted to be the guy in the limousine — they still want to. But now they throw eggs at it.”

And that dichotomy suggests why Americans are increasingly tuning into the show, and others like it — from the network’s House of Lies, to ABC’s Madoff movie, to Fox’s Empire, the Real Housewives franchise on Bravo and more. It seems we cannot get enough of the rich being rich.

That may be because, despite all reports to the contrary, our financially frustrated country still hasn’t recovered in a post-2008-recession world. Even in the bare-knuckle power grab of politics, one party’s front-runner candidate is a megalomaniac billionaire who has seduced a large part of the voting nation, in part, because he was once best known for fi ring up ratings on The Apprentice.

Through complicated TV characters, viewers just can’t wait to watch wealth and power play out in an increasingly unreal world. We admire their success, celebrate their failure and then plunk down some dollars on Powerball tickets in the hopes of joining their ranks.

“Billions taps into our extreme awareness of the gap between the super rich and everyone else,” Showtime president of programming Gary Levine said. “The show not only shines a light on wealth, but taps into the zeal for balancing the scales.”

WHO SHOT TO THE TOP?

The popularity of shows that exploit this thirst for balance — primed by ugly economic uncertainty — has its roots in the late ’70s. Back then, hour-long waits to get half a tank of gas and anger over the Arab oil embargo somehow led Americans to embrace an oil baron named J.R. Ewing who made it clear at every opportunity that he couldn’t give a rat’s behind what you thought of him. That first incarnation of Dallas, in 1978, was a blissful soap, with all the conflicts and backstabbing you’d need to create a perennial favorite.

But there were no illusions that Larry Hagman’s soulless eyes in the part of Ewing earned the show its ratings victories, not to mention its premier landmark status in the canon of Greed Is Good TV. And when millions stuck around in 1980 to find out “Who Shot J.R.?” the lure of the character — underhanded and despicable and yet somehow charming — help split public opinion way in the favor of those who wanted him to survive vs. those who wanted him dead.

Dallas begat 1981’s Dynasty, and those two series helped nourish the thirst for the excesses of wealth until real prosperity in the 1980s seemed to kill the need. Granted, magazine show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous filled that void starting in 1984, but there was no real drama there, and no jealous sense of want, unless it was for simple champagne wishes and caviar dreams.

It wasn’t until the turn of the millennium that things got ugly again — the Enron business, a presidential scandal that stank like a bad cigar and then, soon enough, the brutal bursting of the dot-com bubble that deflated many portfolios of the average American. The bitterness that followed inspired more greed TV. Since unscripted was king, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire parlayed that enticing title into primetime prominence, and the deliciously cutthroat Survivor dominated pre-Facebook water cooler conversation.

After 9/11 reset the national consciousness, Americans witnessed the slow devolution of Washington; between that and the great recession we were given Scandal, The Good Wife and House of Cards. Plus, we gained not only real housewives, but desperate ones as well.

SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL

Is there a character that better represents the vast expanse of unlimited power more than Francis Underwood on Netflix’s House of Cards? Perhaps he has some competition from the unlimited monetary resources that seem to work through the worlds of Showtime series Billions, House of Lies and Ray Donovan.

“I think viewers have a fascination with what is perceived that someone can get away with because of their power, their celebrity or their position,” Bill Carroll, senior vice president and director of content strategy for Katz Television Group, said.

There is arguably no arena where the obsession — and repulsion — of viewers watching power and position is more evident than in the current race for the White House. Recent statistics tab the inequality between rich and poor at a 30-year high, and the number of Americans on food stamps holds steady at over 46 million. How could one not, in that position, believe in a man whose name equals success etched in gold, while others fixate on what they see as a rampant thirst for power?

One must assume Donald Trump takes some cues from fellow TV character Underwood (Kevin Spacey), who sets the tone for his character’s ruthlessness in the first episode of House of Cards by calmly killing an injured dog — the “what will he think of next” shock is impossible to ignore. What better role model has the polls-leading businessman got than a politician who leads a positively unchecked public life?

Much like with The Donald, who is utterly unapologetic and has no filter, drama sometimes requires the rich to live entirely by their wits. On House of Lies, the father of Marty Kaan (Don Cheadle), who had made an honest living as a therapist, asks his son, “Since when is management consultant a real job?”

Kaan’s reply? “Since it pays seven figures a year,” justifying anything and everything he might choose to do to either secure moneyed clients or make the wealthy even wealthier. When he tricks an incredibly rich CEO into hiring his consultancy, he turns to the camera and brags that there’s no feeling better than, “The moment you have the guy who has the world by the balls by the balls.”

Breaking the fourth wall and addressing the folks at home seems to be another privilege enjoyed by the rich and powerful — it’s a conceit also enjoyed in Madoff and House of Cards — and on House of Lies, this is a magical turn. We can celebrate the triumph of a merciless financial consultant because he cheated someone even richer than himself. What viewer wouldn’t want to be him?

AXE GRINDS

Bobby Axelrod provides a similar guilty pleasure in an early episode of Billions when he manages to underpay for the rights to have a building that will now be named after him. To do so, Axe must buy off the old-moneyed descendants of the man for whom the building is currently named.

After an impassioned speech about one of those scions at the table making him feel small when Axe was a lowly and poor golf caddy as a kid, the new billionaire offers only a fraction of what he’d promised to the now-desperate and indebted family — who take the money with hardly a quibble.

The family looks almost cartoonishly humiliated, making this the perfect viewer fantasy. Who hasn’t ever dreamed of hitting it big, and then lashing out at the elite who once put you down? After all, when you come from humble roots, doing whatever you want is now your privilege.

“It humanized him as a character,” Levine said of Axelrod’s early-life struggles. “That is part of our fascination with wealth, particularly in this high-tech day and age, where people can achieve enormous wealth within one lifetime and don’t have built-in family dynasties.”

The appeal often boils down to how scrappy you’ve needed to be in order to achieve your American dream. Perhaps nobody lives that on TV better these days than Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) on Fox’s ratings giant Empire, who helps her husband build a record company from nothing, serves 17 years in jail on a drug rap and then returns, thirsty for what she’s got coming to her.

The at-any-cost eff ort to succeed gives everyone outside the most elevated tax bracket a modicum of hope that anything is possible — whether the riches are scripted or real. Shari Levine, executive vice president of current production at Bravo, sees that working as one of the great appeals of the network’s Real Housewives series.

“I think our housewives are ambitious women who have achieved for different reasons,” she said. “Kandi Burruss of Real Housewives of Atlanta is one of the hardest-working women I’ve ever seen. There are so many businesses she’s started and is still running. It embraces so many qualities that Americans admire.”

The Housewives franchise offers arguably the simplest and most satisfying appeal of shows where money is central — the fundamental truth that it doesn’t buy happiness … but it can’t hurt.

RICH PITCH

In the 10 years between the premieres of the Orange County and Dallas installments, Real Housewives has produced a total of nine U.S. series, 12 spinoff s (including Bethenny Ever After, Vanderpump Rules and Manzo’d With Children) and, fittingly enough, many tie-in appearances on Bravo corporate sibling NBC’s The Apprentice. Erika Jayne, the newest addition to the cast of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, is a top-selling dance music artist who lives with her lawyer husband in a Pasadena mansion on five acres. Her tagline, which she states at the beginning of each episode, is, “I’m an enigma wrapped in a riddle — and cash.”

“That’s a very Housewife-ian statement,” Shari Levine admitted. “Erika comes across very much herself and owns who she is. She speaks from a place of deep honesty.”

And that’s needed on a show where the complaints, even seen through the filter of first-world issues, strike viewers as familiar — conflicts with marriage and kids, money, jealousy, infidelity, you name it. “They’re real people with real issues,” Levine added.

“They’re people suffering slings and arrows of just living and you see this happening. It’s a real series, even if it seems unreal because of that affluence.”

Even Levine, who has been involved in every Real Housewives series, is not immune to just how unreal it is. In the end, whatever the lure that brings fans to the show, you can never argue with that single biggest guilty pleasure — the glory of all that money.

Of the lavish Montecito, Calif., home owned by Beverly Hills cast member and restaurateur Lisa Vanderpump, Levine said: “I should be immune to all this. I have watched so many episodes. But I am always stunned when I go into her home. It’s a luxurious life and a beautiful life.”

ABC’s Black-ish and Fox’s Empire dominated the major television categories during the NAACP Image Awards last night.

Black-ish swept the comedy categories, winning for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Actor (Anthony Anderson) and Outstanding Actress (Tracee Ellis Ross). Empire was just as dominant in the key drama categories, taking home awards for Outstanding Drama Series, Actor (Terrence Howard) and Actress (Taraji P. Henson).

On the cable side, HBO and BET won multiple NAACP Image Awards, which honored the achievements of people of color in entertainment.

TV One aired live Friday night's 47th Annual NAACP Image Awards ceremony, which was hosted by Anthony Anderson.

The winners in the television categories are as follows:

Outstanding Comedy Series

“black-ish” (ABC)

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series  

Anthony Anderson - “black-ish” (ABC)

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series  

Tracee Ellis Ross - “black-ish” (ABC)

Outstanding Drama Series

“Empire” (FOX)

Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series

Terrence Howard - “Empire” (FOX)

Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series

Taraji P. Henson - “Empire” (FOX)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series  

Mike Epps – “Survivor’s Remorse” (Starz)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series  

Marsai Martin - “black-ish” (ABC)

Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series  

Joe Morton - “Scandal” (ABC)

Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Drama Series  

Regina King - “American Crime” (ABC)

Outstanding Television Movie, Mini- Series, or Dramatic Special  

“The Wiz Live!” (NBC)

Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini- Series, or Dramatic Special  

David Alan Grier - “The Wiz Live!” (NBC)

Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini- Series, or Dramatic Special  

Queen Latifah - “Bessie” (HBO)

Outstanding News/Information (Series or Special)  

“Unsung” (TV One)

Outstanding Talk Series  

“The Talk” (CBS)

Outstanding Reality Program/Reality Competition Series  

“Welcome to Sweetie Pie’s” (OWN)

Outstanding Variety (Series or Special)  

“Family Feud” (Syndicated)

Outstanding Children’s Program  

“Doc McStuffins” (Disney Junior)

Outstanding Performance by a Youth (Series, Special, Television Movie or Mini-Series)  

Marcus Scribner - “black-ish” (ABC)

Outstanding Host in a News, Talk, Reality, or Variety Program (Series or Special) – Individual or Ensemble  

Steve Harvey- “Family Feud” (Syndicated)

Outstanding Documentary - (Film)

“The Black Panthers:  Vanguard of the Revolution” (PBS Distribution/Firelight Films)

Outstanding Documentary - (Television)

“Muhammad Ali:  The People’s Champ” (BET)

Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series   

Kenya M. Barris - “black-ish” – The Word (ABC) 

Outstanding Writing in a Drama Series

Mara Brack Ali, Jameal Turner, Keli Goff - “Being Mary Jane” – Sparrow (BET) 

Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series

Don Cheadle - “House of Lies” – The Urge to Save Humanity is Almost Always a False Front for the Urge to Rule (Showtime)

Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series

John Ridley - “American Crime” – Episode 1 (ABC)

Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television)

Dee Rees - “Bessie” (HBO)

Lee Daniels, cocreator and executive producer of Fox’s breakout hit Empire, agreed to a multiyear deal Monday with Twentieth Century Fox Television.

Under the deal, Daniels will continue his role with Empire, as well as develop, write, direct and supervise projects for the studio under his Lee Daniels Entertainment banner.

“Lee Daniels has a gift for telling authentic, provocative stories that are both truthful and wildly entertaining,” said Fox Television Group chairmen and CEOs Dana Walden and Gary Newman in a joint statement. “His casting instincts are incredible, whether he is discovering tomorrow’s stars or attracting the most accomplished performers to his projects. As a director, he elevates world-class material to even greater heights, balancing heart-wrenching poignancy with surprising moments of levity that are over the top and fun. Quite simply, we love working with this inspired storyteller, and this deal is about extending and deepening our relationship.”

Daniels, along with fellow executive producers Danny Strong, Ilene Chaiken, Brian Grazer and Francie Calfo, helped guide Empire as it became the highest-rated broadcast drama in seven years.

“I’m incredibly excited to continue my relationship with Dana and Gary, and the rest of the Fox team,” said Daniels.  “I’m looking forward to developing content and finding alternative voices for both in front of and behind the camera.”

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

NEW YORK – Rentrak vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek believes the difference between video on demand and primetime linear TV is a lot like gap between cooking with a microwave and an oven – food tastes better in the oven, but “you can’t beat the speed.”

Livek, whose company makes its living measuring TV viewing habits, said at the Multichannel News B&C On Demand Summit here that consumers, in an effort to accommodate their busier lifestyles are making the trade off between watching commercials on the VOD platform for the convenience of merely clicking a button to watch their favorite shows when they want them.

 And the numbers back him up. According to Rentrak, a bout 57 million households have access to VOD, up by about 2 million in the past year. More importnatly, he said, time spent watching VOD has risen to 9.3 hours per month, a bout double the time spend just five years ago.

How viewers spend their time is a key metric, Livek added, using the Fox hit primetime show Empire as an example. Livek said that after Empire’s first five episodes, 83% of the viewing was done after day 3 of original air. Toward the tail end of the season, more than 50% of the viewership was done after day 5.

“This is how VOD is changing the economics,” Livek said. “After the third day the majority of viewership is happening; in primetime, content with the Big Five [broadcast networks], five or seven days almost half of viewership is cumed up.”

Livek argued that despite sentiment to the contrary, TV viewership is essentially unchanged. People, he said, are watching just as much or more TV, they are just watching it on different devices and at different times. It is for that reason, he added, that advertisers and networks should look more closely not just at the shows that attract the audiences they want to reach, but the specific times within those programs. According to Rentrak data, different age groups watch primetime VOD shows at different times.

“Time as a demographic does matter,” Livek said, adding that in general, 50% of viewing is occurring five days or more after original air.

Rentrak corporate president Cathy Hetzel said the measurement company is working with cable industry ad consortium Canoe and Comcast to apply age and gender information to VOD titles. That should eventually expand to other distributors.

“There is going to be a lot more talk about this in the near future,” Hetzel said.

HBO took home the lion’s share of Critics’ Choice Television Awards during Sunday night's live telecast.

HBO won seven awards to lead all cable shows, followed by FX with four wins, according to the Broadcast Television Journalists Association (BTJA). Amazon, AMC, Comedy Central and Fox also took home multiple awards with two each.

Olive Kitteridge (HBO) was most honored program with three wins including best limited series. AMC’s Better Call Saul, HBO’s Silicon Valley and Amazon’s Transparent won two awards each, according to the BTJA.

FX’s The Americans won the award for Best Drama Series, while Silicon Valley (HBO) won Best Comedy Series. HBO’s Bessie took top honors in the best movie made for television category. 

Best actor in a drama series went to Bob Odenkirk (Better Call Saul), while Jeffrey Tambor took home top honors for best actor in a comedy series for his role in Amazon’s Transparent.

The Best actress in a drama series was awarded to Taraji P. Henson for her role in Fox’s Empire, while the best actress in a comedy series nod went to Amy Schumer (Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer.)

The 2015 Critics’ Choice Television Awards were hosted by Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance) and aired live on A&E

The Complete list of Critics’ Choice Television Awards is as follows:

Best Drama Series: The Americans (FX)

Best Actor in a Drama Series: Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul (AMC)

Best Actress in a Drama Series: Taraji P. Henson, Empire (FOX)

Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series: Jonathan Banks, Better Call Saul (AMC)

Best Supporting Actress in a Drama Series: Lorraine Toussaint, Orange Is the New Black (Netflix)

Best Guest Performer in a Drama Series: Sam Elliott, Justified (FX)

Best Comedy Series: Silicon Valley (HBO)

Best Actor in a Comedy Series: Jeffrey Tambor, Transparent (Amazon)

Best Actress in a Comedy Series: Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer (Comedy Central)

Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series: T.J. Miller, Silicon Valley (HBO)

Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series: Allison Janey, Mom (CBS)

Best Guest Performer in a Comedy Series: Bradley Whitford, Transparent (Amazon)

Best Movie Made for Television: Bessie (HBO)

Best Limited Series: Olive Kitteridge (HBO)

Best Actor in a Movie or Limited Series: David Oyelowo, Nightingale (HBO)

 Best Actress in a Movie or Limited Series: Frances McDormand, Olive Kitteridge (HBO)

Best Supporting Actor in a Movie or Limited Series: Bill Murray, Olive Kitteridge (HBO)

Best Supporting Actress in a Movie or Limited Series: Sarah Paulson, American Horror Story: Freak Show (FX)

Best Reality Series: Shark Tank (ABC) 

Best Reality Competition Series: Face Off (Syfy)

Best Reality Series Host: Cat Deeley, So You Think You Can Dance (FOX)

Best Talk Show: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart (Comedy Central)

Best Animated Series: Archer (FX)

Critics’ Choice LOUIS XIII Genius Award: Seth MacFarlane

With the 2014-15 television season now in the books, a recent Ratings Intelligence report revealed that three of the top five highest-rated broadcast dramas of 2015 featured a predominately African-American cast or was headed by an African-American actor/actress: Empire, How to Get Away with Murder and Scandal.

With the success of those broadcast TV shows as well as cable series such as Power, Being Mary Jane and the Haves and Have Nots featuring predominately African-American cast or lead actors, it’s hard to believe there was a time when such images weren’t a major part of the television landscape.

Yet a recent Paley Center Tribute to African-American Achievements in Television reminded the many actors, writers and network executives in attendance how far African-Americans have come in portraying their stories and their images on the small screen.

Oprah Winfrey, who has been a mainstay on television for more than 30 years, spoke during the Paley Center tribute about a period in the early 1950s through late 1960s when there were no TV shows featuring an African-American actor or actresses in a starring or supporting role.

To have come from that point through the 1970s and 1980s when a few shows like Sanford and Son, The Jeffersons,Good Times and eventually The Cosby Show began to showcase African-American images and stories, to today’s array of programs showcasing African Americans across multiple platforms is not lost on the veteran actors and actresses who lived through those often lean times.

Antonio Fargas, best known for his role as the iconic, streetwise informant Huggy Bear on the 1970s crime drama Starsky & Hutch and who has been embraced by contemporary audiences through appearances on Everybody Hates Chris and most recently on Showtime’s House of Lies, recently told Multichannel News that he’s impressed with the strides African-Americans have made on TV.

   “For me I know whose shoulders I stand on. To now know that I’m a young pioneer in TV history because of the opportunities that I had in the 1970s is special," said Fargas, who is currently serving as brand ambassador for the vintage TV network Cozi Tv. "[Today’s performers] gave me opportunities in their shows because they wanted to say thank you for the shoulders that I gave them.” 

The other message heard loud and clear at the Paley Center tribute was that the beat must go on for African-American images on TV beyond Scandal, Empire and Black-ish.  

“It’s imperative that we keep telling our stories because our experiences are so broad, rich and multifaceted – there isn’t one way to be Black or ish,” said Winfrey. “The more stories we share the more reflective we can be of the whole diverse African-American community.”

The 2014-15 television season is almost in the books, and it will arguably go down as one of the most groundbreaking as it pertains to diversity.

The success of a group of new shows on both traditional and digital TV platforms has helped to eradicate some long-held preconceived notions about shows created by and starring people of diverse backgrounds.

First, this TV season has proven that content with diverse themes and lead characters can appeal beyond specific niche groups. The explosion this year of shows such as Empire, Jane the Virgin, How to Get Away With Murder, Black-ish and Power on traditional cable and broadcast TV, as well as Orange Is the New Black and Transparent on over-the-top subscription video services, is remarkable, given the unprecedented competition and fragmented viewership of the current TV environment.

The fact that all of these shows performed well — especially Fox’s Empire, which, incredibly, saw its viewership climb virtually every week of its 12-week run — is a testament to each show’s ability to appeal not just to multicultural viewers who are watching lead characters that reflect their images and cultures like never before, but to mainstream viewers as well.

Second, services including Amazon and Netflix have proven you can build successful series around transgender characters who are complicated, compelling and three-dimensional, rather than cartoonish caricatures that viewers could easily dismiss as weird or somehow not real. Jeffrey Tambor’s Golden Globe-winning portrayal of a middle-aged woman inside a man’s body in Amazon’s Transparent, as well as Netflix’s depiction of multiethnic and LGBT characters in Orange Is the New Black, have shown that realistic portrayals of LGBT people will get viewers to tune in, not tune out.

Third, it’s good to have diversity behind the camera as well as in front of it. From Empire’s Lee Daniels to The Haves and the Have Nots’s Tyler Perry, to How to Get Away With Murder’s Shonda Rhimes to Power’s Courtney Kemp Agboh and Fresh Off the Boat’s Eddie Huan, this new wave of multicultural producers, directors, writers and showrunners is providing viewers with narratives that reflect unique experiences and cultural nuances — no better or worse than anyone else’s; just different than what viewers have seen in the past — that have put a fresh and colorful coat of paint on traditional TV genres that viewers love to watch.

Strong ratings performances from a number of multicultural-themed shows during the 2014-15 television season are proving that an audience exists for quality programming featuring people of color.

The Jan. 6 season-three debut of OWN’s primetime soap opera Tyler Perry’s The Haves and The Have Nots set a network ratings record for a series premiere, averaging 3.22 million viewers and ranking as the network’s second most watched telecast among male viewers.

The Fox broadcasting network’s drama series Empire, starring Terrance Howard and Taraji P. Henson, drew nearly 10 million viewers for its Jan. 7 premiere, the second biggest launch on broadcast TV this season behind ABC’s How To Get Away With Murder, starring African-American actress and recent People’s Choice Award winner Viola Davis.

Add ABC’s comedy sitcom Black-ishto the list, and three of the highest-rated new series for the season are headed by African-American actors and/or actresses.

The Latino family dramedy Jane The Virgin on the CW was the best reviewed new series, according to Ratings Intelligence, and the show’s star, Gina Rodriguez, recently won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a TV comedy – the network’s first major Golden Globes win.

Also, ABC Latino family sitcom Cristela was the only freshman comedy besides Black-ish to get a full-season pickup, according to Ratings Intelligence. 

The Television Critics Association press tour provided TV writers and viewers with a glimpse at several new projects featuring prominent multicultural characters and storylines. ABC will soon air the Asian-themed series Fresh Off The Boat, while TV One Feb. 7 will launch a monthly series of original movies featuring African-American themes, starting with White Water.

BET will debut its first-ever mini-series The Book Of Negroes, based on Lawrence Hill’s award-winning novel which chronicles a young slave woman who, in exchange for her freedom, s ides with the British during the Revolutionary War.

Emmy and Academy Award winning actor Lou Gossett Jr. said TV series like The Book of Negroes in which he stars as well as movies like Selma and 12 Years A Slave are being developed for an audience looking for programming that tell stories about the history, lives, struggles and stories of people of color.

“It took a minute to tell our stories … now it’s okay for us to tell our stories to the world,” Gossett told nearly 200 TV critics at BET’s recent Television Critics Association Winter tour presentation. “This is the tip of the iceberg as far as information about our roots are concerned,” he said. “We’re going in the right direction, and you ain’t seen nothing yet.”