WHAT'S A "BLACK" STORYLINE?"
A Discussion of African-American Roles on Daytime
Tamara Tunie (Jessica), Peter Parros (Ben), Napiera Danielle Groves (Bonnie)
and Lamman Rucker (Marshall) are currently starring in one of Oakdale's
hottest fall stories. A story of love, ambition, lust, obsession and dirty-dealings.
It features Black actors, but is it a "Black" story -- whatever
that may be? SoapCity sat down with the actors involved to find out...
(The fifth member of the storyline, Paul Taylor [Isaac] was in the hospital
and unavailable for our interview and photo session. He has since recovered
and is back at work.)
SoapCityAlina: Soap ratings are falling across the board. Allegedly,
one of the largest defecting groups is African-American viewers. Some
experts estimate that as many as one million African-American viewers
have stopped watching daytime in the past year, primarily due to the lack
of African-American actors. Do you think this is true?
Lamman Rucker: To be honest with you, I think that is an understatement.
I'm a math man and I'm a computer guy. I know that when it comes to statistics,
there are plenty of folks who are watching daytime who don't have Nielsen
boxes in their communities. So, I definitely think that number is understated,
as it is most of the time when it comes to studies that have to do with
the African-American community.
Napiera Danielle Groves: We, Black viewers, very rarely have Nielsen
boxes in our houses. I just don't think our voices are heard or reflected
in viewer response percentages like that. I don't know one Black person
who has a Nielsen box.
Peter Parros: I believe the study. I think it is possible that
the audience is that attached to one character. Shemar (Moore; ex-Malcolm,
Y&R) won the NAACP Award so many years in a row, so I think it's possible.
I think he had a very high profile among Black people -- he had Soul
Train. He has a lot of visibility, so it's possible that he was a
high contributing factor to that.
Tamara Tunie: I think it is possible that people stop watching
because of one character, because so many people came up to me and said
they stopped watching when I left ATWT and now that I'm back, they've
begun watching it again. So, it's absolutely true.
Next: Question
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