'CSI' Charged With Lack Of Directorial Diversity

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and CSI: Miami do not hire enough women and minority directors, according to a Directors Guild of America report released yesterday.

The DGA paper singled out CSI: Miami as one of three "top forty" primetime series which employed neither female or minority helmers in the 2002-2003 television season, according to BusinessWire. The other two shows were CBS's Yes, Dear and the acclaimed real-time series, 24.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was included in the group of ten top-rating series which did not make use of female directors last season. Other offenders included Friends, Everybody Loves Raymond and Boomtown.

Furthermore, during the course of its three seasons to date, the DGA study said CSI's directing hires showed a "pattern of zero or token efforts in hiring women and/or minority directors". The only female to helm a CSI episode was Allison Liddi, who directed "Organ Grinder" in season two.

"The report reveals that once again the producers and the networks have failed to fulfill their contractual good faith obligation to hire more women and minority directors," said Martha Coolidge, president of the Directors Guild of America. "Although for many years we have challenged the industry to open up employment opportunities for women and minorities, and last year made explicit the hiring records of the top forty shows, it is clear from this report that the producers' and the networks' commitment to diversity is not reflected in their hiring of directors."

Only two episodes of CSI's 69-episode run have been directed by minorities, according to the DGA report. These are likely to be "The I-15 Murders" director Oz Scott and Felix Enriquez Alcala, who helmed "One Hit Wonder" during the 2002-2003 season.

This isn't the first time CSI has been upbraided for its lack of diversity behind the camera: the series was singled out for its failure to hire many female and minority directors in its first two seasons as well. Paris Barclay, an Emmy-Award winning director whose credits include NYPD Blue and The West Wing, said he was disappointed that top-rating television series had not paid attention to the DGA's previous reports.

"I am profoundly disappointed that after publicly revealing this data in the past, that shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, Friends and CSI don't seem to have made more of a good faith effort to diversify their directing pool," said Barclay, who is also third vice-president of the DGA.

CSI network CBS responded to the report by saying "there is more work to be done" and "we need to continue to improve on our diversity efforts", according to the Hollywood Reporter. The network is also planning a "shadow-directing initiative that will allow talented, diverse directors to be mentored on primetime network programs".

Further details are available at BusinessWire or Hollywood Reporter. Thanks to Elyse's CSI Site for this!

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