Streaming platforms, be it Netflix, Hulu, or even Amazon are known for catering to their audience demands. Whatever is most popular will inevitably take its place at the top of the charts with clear rankings visible. However, in a strange turn of events, it seems that the very system has come to create troubles for Amazon.
According to an insider source, in a marketing meeting in late summer, an Amazon executive noted that recent data reports revealed a lot of fans tend to find queer themes in the shows off-putting. Which inevitably leads to a lower rank and ends up in the series being dropped. This meeting ended up resulting in an internal interrogation being held, after which Amazon reportedly dropped the system completely.
Amazon ranking shows by audience rating
Reportedly, in a marketing meeting about the Amazon original series A League of Their Own, an executive claimed, “that data showed audiences found queer stories off-putting and suggested downplaying those themes in materials promoting the show.” Kim Masters from The Hollywood Reporter elaborated on this claim, “Multiple sources say [Amazon’s system] often ranked broad series featuring straight, white male leads above all others.”
After this factor in their ranking system was revealed, the show’s co-creator Will Graham supposedly, “launched into an interrogation of the system,” which eventually concluded in “the system of ranking shows based on audience scores,” being scrapped completely. Amazon has been quite the advocate for inclusion and diversity these past few years, as such their decision is not exactly a surprise. This however brings into question the authenticity of audience ratings if they turn out to be founded on such superficial if not offensive grounds.
Also Read: A League of Their Own Review: A Grand Slam for Prime
Amazon not the only one with such a system in place
It turns out Amazon might not be the only company with such a system in place. Masters’ claim that audiences found LGBTQ-themed stories off-putting highlights another insider claim from a while ago. According to insider WDW pro multiple Hollywood focus groups conveyed an audience survey in which they put a dummy police show against a more awareness conscious woke police show.
According to that survey, the dummy police show, which was based on stitched-together episodes of Starsky and Hutch, as opposed to the other one, which is a legitimate show that was being pitched to a lot of streaming services ranked way higher. The dummy show featured two young white male detectives placed as partners in Las Vegas, outlandish fistfights and car chases on every other episode, with recurring girlfriends, developing informants, and pushing in the whole grunt to glamour narrative of the strip.
While the real show was based on a POC policewoman placed in the deep South where she was apparently disconcerted by the blatant racism, sexism, and abuse of power her colleagues cultivated upon the communities they were supposed to be in service of. Moreover, it also highlighted the policewoman’s struggles of keeping her back safe in a treacherous place and trying to bring positive change both in and out of the department.
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Amazon’s push to bring change
If that was not enough of an answer for a major proportion of the audience’s stance on diversity, inclusivity, and LGBTQ issues, there was yet another national-level poll done by Rasmussen Reports.
This specific report concluded at the end of the survey that apparently only a shockingly low 28% of the American populace who participated in the poll believe in the necessity of inclusion of LGBTQ issues and diversity in the entertainment genre that companies like Amazon and Disney are trying to portray.
In fact, according to them, around 45% of American adults seem to think, “the push for ‘inclusion’ is making kids’ entertainment worse.” With the current issues going on in America such a result of a national-level poll surely does not seem very optimistic. However, the fact that major companies like Amazon are actively pushing for change by scrapping a system where the audience rating mattered in a show’s ranking seems like a silver lining for now.
A League of Their Own is available for streaming on Amazon Prime.
Source: Bounding Into Comics
