‘Queen Sugar,’ ‘With Love,’ ‘Rap Sh!t’ Top Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, Adobe’s First Inclusion List for TV

Ahead of the Emmy Awards on Monday, USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative and the Adobe Foundation have released a new edition of their Inclusion List, this time focused on episodic content.

OWN’s Queen Sugar and Netflix’s Raising Dion were the top-ranked series on broadcast/cable and streaming, respectively, while Berlanti Productions’ Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schecter had the top cumulative scores on the Inclusion List (10). The list is the 100 highest-scoring series (out of the 560 that aired on broadcast and cable during the 2021-22 season or streamed from 2021-23) based on a points system that rewards shows for employing series regulars or certain crew members from a historically excluded gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation or gender identity, disability or age category. The crew positions considered were director, writer, producer, cinematographer, editor, composer, costume designer, production designer, casting director and first assistant director. In total, the research team analyzed more than 4,500 series regular roles and more than 11,000 crew members to compile the list.

“The goal of the Inclusion List is to recognize the stories and storytellers who are taking inclusion seriously and whose content reflects their values,” Annenberg Inclusion Initiative founder Stacy L. Smith said in a statement. “With today’s release of the Inclusion List for broadcast/cable and streaming series, we are excited to acknowledge the creative voices championing inclusion across the spectrum of episodic content.”

AI2 and Adobe released the first iteration of the Inclusion List, focused on film, last May.

“The entertainment industry has an incredible power to connect people, shape culture and create impactful change in the world,” Adobe vice president of marketing strategy and communications and Adobe Foundation member Stacy Martinet said in a statement. “Adobe’s partnership with USC’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative illuminates our commitment to supporting and elevating underrepresented voices to share their stories.”

The top 10 broadcast and cable series on the Inclusion list are Queen Sugar (OWN), The Baby (HBO), Naomi (The CW), All American: Homecoming (The CW), Twenties (BET), Queens (ABC), The Kings of Napa (OWN), The 4400 (The CW), Sistas (BET) and P-Valley (Starz).

The top 10 streaming series on the Inclusion list are Raising Dion (Netflix), Gentefied (Netflix), The Garcias (Max), The Last Days of Ptolemy Gray (Apple TV+), Reasonable Doubt (Hulu), Now and Then (Apple TV+), Rap Sh!t (Max), With Love (Amazon Prime), First Kill (Netflix) and Swarm (Amazon Prime).

Many of these series have since reached their natural conclusions or have been cancelled.

The 20 executive producers with the top cumulative scores on the Inclusion List are Greg Berlanti and Sarah Schecter (10), Howard Klein (6), Ravi Nandan (5), Ava DuVernay and Paul Garnes (4), Mindy Kaling (4), Carolyn Strauss (4), Aaron Kaplan (4), Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (4), Dave Becky (3), David Madden (3), Lauren Levy Neustadter (3), Reese Witherspoon (3), Gloria Calderón Kellett (3), Fred Armisen (3), Jonathan Groff (3), Tony Hernandez (3) and Charles D. King (2).