Viewing Race in the Comfort Zone

Abstract

Carter suggests the concept of a “comfort zone” to explain the inability of dramatic African American programs to be successful on television. He argues that a workable formula has been developed for successful African American series, “portray black people in a way that would be acceptable to the millions of potential purchasers (whites) of advertised products. That is, non-threatening and willing to ‘stay in their place.’”. Using a data set constructed from television ratings and shares, this study examines “black-centeredness” within the context of program success and failure. The comfort zone concept argues Black-centered television series are only successful in a comedic genre because White audiences, who have the majority of the ratings power, will only watch Black-centered series with which they are comfortable. The findings suggest that, in general, race, that is Black-centeredness, did not negatively influence program ratings or shares.