Emmys white acting winners swept the lead and supporting categories at the Sept. 14 ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter, and the results set off the #Emmyssowhite trend. The reaction points to a deeper problem: actors of color cannot win awards for roles that never get made.

Television Academy chair Cris Abrego described a mixed picture, with meaningful gains in representation alongside real regression.

“The Emmys ultimately reflect the work that makes it to our screens,” Television Academy chair Cris Abrego said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

Hollywood’s 2020 pledges looked like a turning point at the time. After Black Lives Matter protests, Netflix said it had a duty to speak up for Black members, employees, creators and talent, and Bob Iger wrote to Disney employees about strengthening diversity and inclusion. The Academy also adopted diversity and inclusion requirements for best picture nominees.

Those gains did not hold. UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report, released in June, found that the share of streaming lead actors of color fell below their share of the U.S. population for the first time in three years, dropping to 36 percent in 2025 from 51 percent in 2024. Streaming films with majority people-of-color casts slipped from 41 percent to 25.8 percent.

Creator opportunities followed the same path. UCLA’s 2022 report showed the share of digital scripted series created by people of color jumped to 25.6 percent in 2020-21, the largest one-year gain in that report’s history. After the 2023 strikes, UCLA’s Streaming Television in 2023 report found that 25 of 228 scripted shows, or 11 percent, had a BIPOC creator.

Why are fewer creators of color getting their projects made?

Money is a central factor, according to Gloria Calderón Kellett, creator of Prime Video’s With Love. She pointed to UCLA data showing fewer than one-fifth of streaming films directed by filmmakers of color had budgets above $50 million, compared with slightly more than a quarter of those directed by white men. She said that starting position makes the race far harder to win.

Corporate policy has shifted too. Shortly after Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order ended diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility offices across federal agencies, Disney dropped references to its Reimagine Tomorrow initiative in a regulatory filing. Amazon Studios eliminated policies aimed at diversity in its TV and film projects, Paramount ended staffing goals tied to race, ethnicity and gender, and Warner Bros. Discovery removed the ‘D’ and ‘E’ from its recruitment focus.

“The rollback of DEI exposed how performative the effort always was,” Deli Boys creator Abdullah Saeed said.

Saeed’s Hulu crime drama about two Pakistani American brothers premiered in March 2025 and ran for two seasons. This year it was submitted for 28 Emmy nominations across 22 categories but received none, and it was canceled in August. Saeed said he was told viewership was the basis for the decision, though he also noticed a change in how people treated his work.

The business case is also on the table. The Latino Donor Collaborative’s 2024 Latinos in Media Report estimated the industry could add $12 billion to $18 billion a year with proper Latino representation in TV and film. A January study from USC’s Norman Lear Center found Latinos made up 6 percent of credited characters in top broadcast series for the 2024-2025 season, despite being 20 percent of the U.S. population.

Not every signal points down. HBO’s The Pitt, with a notably multi-ethnic cast, led all Emmy nominations with 25 and won best drama for a second straight year. Abbott Elementary, the most diverse network Emmy contender, remains one of ABC’s most-watched comedies.

What comes next is a new test for the industry. Ben Watkins, creator of Prime Video’s Cross, says the Emmys went from no winners of color in 2021 to five of 12 in 2023, then back to zero in 2026. He is also readying The Greatest, his Muhammad Ali drama, which launches Nov. 4. Watkins said Prime Video’s confidence in him, combined with Cross’s success, made the decision easier, and he hopes more studios will weigh internal metrics over shifting political attitudes.

Quick answers

Why did #Emmyssowhite trend after the Emmys?
White actors swept the lead and supporting acting categories at the Sept. 14 ceremony, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The reaction focused on actors of color being unable to win for roles that never get made.

How much did streaming lead-actor diversity drop?
UCLA’s Hollywood Diversity Report said the share of streaming lead actors of color fell to 36 percent in 2025 from 51 percent in 2024. That put it below their share of the U.S. population.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter