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ABC’s ‘black-ish’ Ends Its Run as ABC Looks to Future

This image released by ABC shows Anthony Anderson, left, and Tracee Ellis Ross in a scene from the series finale of "black-ish," airing April 19. (ABC via AP)
This image released by ABC shows Anthony Anderson, left, and Tracee Ellis Ross in a scene from the series finale of "black-ish," airing April 19. (ABC via AP)
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ABC’s ‘black-ish’ Ends Its Run as ABC Looks to Future

This image released by ABC shows Anthony Anderson, left, and Tracee Ellis Ross in a scene from the series finale of "black-ish," airing April 19. (ABC via AP)
This image released by ABC shows Anthony Anderson, left, and Tracee Ellis Ross in a scene from the series finale of "black-ish," airing April 19. (ABC via AP)

As the comedy “black-ish” ended its run after eight seasons with a relatively modest live audience of 2.52 million viewers, ABC is already pivoting to what it hopes is its next defining sitcom.

The “black-ish” series finale last week featured a storyline where series stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross move their fictional Johnson family from the predominantly white area where they had been living to a neighborhood with more Black families.

It was the largest audience for the series since its final season debut in September, according to the Nielsen company, and certain to increase when delayed viewing is taken into account.

The series earned four Emmy Award nominations for best comedy in an era where it’s unusual for a broadcast series to be recognized.

Less than a week later, at a New York dinner held by ABC parents Walt Disney Co. on Monday to showcase its creators, a spotlight was on Quinta Brunson, creator and star of the new sitcom “Abbott Elementary.”

The series based in a Philadelphia elementary school and inspired by Brunson’s mother, a kindergarten teacher, debuted in December to strong reviews. It ended its first season on April 12 with an average of 2.9 million viewers per episode, which swelled to 8 million when a full month’s delayed viewing is counted in, Nielsen said.

Brunson said that she’s a fan of workplace and family comedies, which have been a staple of ABC’s lineup for generations.

“I think the world was really longing for that kind of feeling again — the things we got from older shows like ‘Family Ties’ and more modern shows like ‘The Office’ and ‘Parks & Rec,’” she said.

The show will be back for a second season in the fall.

CBS won the week in prime-time last week with an average of 4.5 million viewers, led by “60 Minutes,” which was the week’s top-ranked show for the sixth time this season. NBC averaged 3.01 million viewers, ABC had 2.96 million, Fox had 2 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Telemundo had 970,000 and Ion Television had 960,000.

TNT led cable networks with a prime-time average of 2.62 million viewers. Fox News Channel had 2.25 million, ESPN had 1.33 million, MSNBC had 1.09 million and HGTV had 1.03 million.

ABC’s “World News Tonight” led the evening news ratings race with an average of 7.8 million viewers. NBC’s “Nightly News” averaged 6.7 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.9 million.

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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
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Video Game Performers Will Go on Strike Over Artificial Intelligence Concerns 

SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)
SAG-AFTRA signage is seen on the side of the headquarters in Los Angeles on Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP)

Hollywood's video game performers announced they would go on strike Thursday, throwing part of the entertainment industry into another work stoppage after talks for a new contract with major game studios broke down over artificial intelligence protections.

The strike — the second for video game voice actors and motion capture performers under the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists — will begin at 12:01 a.m. Friday. The move comes after nearly two years of negotiations with gaming giants, including divisions of Activision, Warner Bros. and Walt Disney Co., over a new interactive media agreement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators say gains have been made over wages and job safety in the video game contract, but that the two sides remained split over the regulation of generative AI. A spokesperson for the video game producers, Audrey Cooling, said the studios offered AI protections, but SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said that the studios’ definition of who constitutes a "performer" is key to understanding the issue of who would be protected.

"The industry has told us point blank that they do not necessarily consider everyone who is rendering movement performance to be a performer that is covered by the collective bargaining agreement," SAG-AFTRA Chief Contracts Officer Ray Rodriguez said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. He said some physical performances are being treated as "data."

Without guardrails, game companies could train AI to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness without consent or fair compensation, the union said.

"We strike as a matter of last resort. We have given this process absolutely as much time as we responsibly can," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have exhausted the other possibilities, and that is why we’re doing it now."

Cooling said the companies' offer "extends meaningful AI protections."

"We are disappointed the union has chosen to walk away when we are so close to a deal, and we remain prepared to resume negotiations," she said.

Andi Norris, an actor and member of the union's negotiating committee, said that those who do stunt work or creature performances would still be at risk under the game companies' offer.

"The performers who bring their body of work to these games create a whole variety of characters, and all of that work must be covered. Their proposal would carve out anything that doesn’t look and sound identical to me as I sit here, when, in truth, on any given week I am a zombie, I am a soldier, I am a zombie soldier," Norris said. "We cannot and will not accept that a stunt or movement performer giving a full performance on stage next to a voice actor isn’t a performer."

The global video game industry generates well over $100 billion dollars in profit annually, according to game market forecaster Newzoo. The people who design and bring those games to life are the driving force behind that success, SAG-AFTRA said.

Members voted overwhelmingly last year to give leadership the authority to strike. Concerns about how movie studios will use AI helped fuel last year’s film and television strikes by the union, which lasted four months.

The last interactive contract, which expired in November 2022, did not provide protections around AI but secured a bonus compensation structure for voice actors and performance capture artists after an 11-month strike that began in October 2016. That work stoppage marked the first major labor action from SAG-AFTRA following the merger of Hollywood’s two largest actors unions in 2012.

The video game agreement covers more than 2,500 "off-camera (voiceover) performers, on-camera (motion capture, stunt) performers, stunt coordinators, singers, dancers, puppeteers, and background performers," according to the union.

Amid the tense interactive negotiations, SAG-AFTRA created a separate contract in February that covered independent and lower-budget video game projects. The tiered-budget independent interactive media agreement contains some of the protections on AI that video game industry titans have rejected. Games signed to an interim interactive media agreement, tiered-budget independent interactive agreement or interim interactive localization agreement are not part of the strike, the union said.