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Thats three of495 scripted seriesproduced in 2018.
(ABC will premiereGrand Hotel,executive-produced by Eva Longoria, on June 17.)
We are an enormous part of the fabric of this country.
Thats not representative of the culture.
So we fight the fight of letting them know we are good enough.
Its hard, guys.
Tanya Saracho: My show could be next.
I dont have a third season.
I have to see howVidaperforms second season, and it didnt do well the first season.
Im sure some of you watched it, and Im grateful.
But for them [Starzexecutives], nobody watched it.
I just hope people watch it because I will be sitting here fighting for my show too.
To me, the issue is macro big.
We have been invisible.
They give us a show, but then they take them away.
Its like the progress we make is false progress.
Its a feeling because everybody keeps saying: Things are changing, right?
But things havent changed.
I feel like its too early to say.
Isnt that so offensive to us?
Its not just Hollywood and television.
Its something were experiencing as Latinx in this country.
So how to make them see beyond that?
Kellett:Both of our shows are not just Latinx, but theyre queer.
If not, were never going to be a movement.
Kellett:We do need to be more vocal about what we want.
Because I dont think they know.
And I didnt know why!
Its like,I exist, I am here, I take up space, I matter.
Basically, what we do is we make culture.
And that story affects how people see us, how people view us.
Were not just talking about TV shows and making entertainment.
We are talking about telling stories to lift up a community.
So when those shows are under attack, we take it more personally.
It means a different thing to us.
There are shows that are just for fun, to turn off our brains for a minute.
But there are also things that are important and impactful.
And she said, Write the immigrant narrative.
Dare to write it, but dont just be fetishizing the narrative, or doing immigrant porn with it.
Have them have a point of view, a backstory.
Put a human being in it because thats the most radical thing you could do.
And I think thats what we need.
Were usually a purpose.
Were there for the leading person to learn a lesson.
We need to get out of that category.
I mean, Im not.
I dont have citizenship.
I have a green card!
Kellett:I am shameless.
I tweet every day.
I do it on my show.
I dont give a fuck anymore.
We need to talk about it.
The truth is there are so many shows.
Nobodys watching most things.
Nobody watches in real time.
It is important to market to us.
These are things that they need to know.
And then we need to be that.
We need to watch and spend money and show up.
The tricky thing I found onOne Day at a Timeis it took people three seasons to find us.
They didnt know we existed because the marketing on a lot of these shows doesnt exist.
Saracho:We did [have marketing]andnobody watched it.
We are training an audience, and were not used to it.
Thats the concern for content creators because it seems that specific stories are always better.
I grew up watching it.
It was my babysitter when my parents worked.
I likeMaster of None, I likeInsecure.
I think thats an important conversation to be having because I dont know what the algorithms are.
But following them would not ever be my jam.
Or just being a family member, just being a shitty sister.
Or a wife that lost her spouse.
I didnt just makeVidafor Latinx, but they do get a special coded gifts and jokes.
People are like, what doespochamean?
]Pochas not a word weve ever heard on television.
Theres something about the power and the alchemy of recognition.
Think about it when it happens.
Theyve never had that alchemy happen.
