NAACP Is Partnering With CBS To Bring More Black Stories To The Forefront

FILE – NAACP President and CEO, Derrick Johnson addresses the 110th NAACP National Convention in Detroit on July 22, 2019. CBS Television and the NAACP have reached an agreement to develop content to further tell stories of the African American experience. The partnership will focus on creating and producing scripted, unscripted and documentary content for the studio’s broadcast, cable and streaming platforms. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, File)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is teaming up with CBS Television Studios through a multi-year agreement to produce content that focuses on the African American experience.

Through this new partnership, the organizations will collaborate on producing scripted, unscripted, and documentary content for CBS’s broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms.  This deal marks the first time that the NAACP has joined forces with a major media company to develop an array of original programming. 

The initiative comes as Hollywood studios are compelled to improve representation in all spaces in the wake of extensive social change propelled by the Black Lives Matter movement.  

“In this moment of national awakening, the time has never been better to further tell stories of the African American experience,” said Derrick Johnson, the president and CEO of the NAACP. “Programming and content have the power to shape perspectives and drive conversations around critical issues. This partnership with CBS allows us to bring compelling and important content to a broad audience.”

“An important way to diversify and grow our storytelling is to expand our horizons beyond the traditional studio-producer system,” said CBS Entertainment Group CEO George Cheeks. “There is no better partner than the NAACP — the preeminent civil rights organization in our country — to help us find, develop and tell these inclusive stories. At the same time, this is a strategic opportunity for CBS to build upon as well as re-imagine our pipeline for existing and emerging creative talent.”

On Monday, Cheeks vowed to spend a quarter of CBS’s 2021-22 broadcast season development budget on projects created by writers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color. Furthermore, he also intends on having all of the studio’s writers’ rooms made up of at least 40 percent BIPOC representation, and increasing to 50 percent for the next season.