Latine Immigrant Representation in Scripted TV Hits Significant Low

A new report titled "Change the Narrative, Change the World," conducted by Define American in collaboration with USC’s Norman Lear Center, reveals a concerning decline in the representation of Latine immigrants on scripted television. Data collected from 62 scripted series airing between July 2023 and June 2025 indicates that Latine individuals now account for only 23% of immigrant characters on screen. This figure represents a sharp decrease from 50% in 2020, despite the fact that Latine immigrants constitute 44% of the total immigrant population in the United States.

The study highlights a dangerous reliance on a handful of procedural franchises to carry the weight of representation. For instance, the "FBI" and "FBI: Most Wanted" series accounted for a disproportionate share of the Latine immigrant characters sampled. When these programs are excluded from the data, the representation rate drops to a mere 17%. This trend suggests that the industry is failing to integrate diverse immigrant experiences across the broader television landscape, instead relegating them to specific, narrow niches.

This decline is significant because it underscores a systemic failure to reflect the true demographic makeup of the country. Experts argue that the industry cannot rely on a few isolated programs to represent the entirety of the Latine immigrant experience. By failing to provide nuanced, varied storytelling, networks and streamers risk perpetuating outdated tropes and limiting the cultural impact of their programming. Moving forward, the report serves as a call to action for creators and executives to prioritize authentic, widespread representation rather than relying on tokenism within a limited number of shows.