When the Oscar nominations were announced two weeks ago, there was an instant uproar over the lack of diversity among the nominations. All of the 20 acting nominee are white: the first time since 1998 that there were no people of color nominated. Conspiracy theorists attribute this to the fact that many Academy members are older, white men. According to the last U.S. census, 62.6 per cent of respondents identified as Caucasian followed by 17.1 per cent as Hispanic, 16.2 per cent as African American and 5.3 per cent Asian. If the Academy had followed these percentages, 12 of the acting nominees should have been white and eight nominees should have been people of color.

Celebrities jumped into the fray to express their displeasure. Spike Lee, no stranger to controversy himself, expressed his expletive-tinged disappointment. Taking the higher road, when Jessica Chastain accepted her Critics’ Choice award, she used her acceptance speech to bemoan the lack of diversity among the Oscar nominations and to encourage those in the audience to speak up. While pundits will keep debating Oscar’s lack of diversity, television is taking the lead once again.

With women of a certain age getting the short shrift in film, they are flocking to television to find roles that are more than just the token wife, mother, grandmother. American Horror Story has given plenty of interesting roles to women of all demographics in its four seasons. At the 2014 Emmys alone, Angela Bassett, Kathy Bates, Frances Conroy and Jessica Lange were all at least nominated for arguably more interesting roles they might have found on the big screen. Things are looking up for people of color on television as well.

Eva Longoria’s Telenovela will soon be representing the under-served Hispanic population on television. In February, ABC is launching a new sit-com with an Asian-American cast, Fresh Off The Boat. Fresh Off The Boat is the first predominantly Asian-American television show in almost 20 years. The last was Margaret Cho’s short lived sit-com, also on ABC, All American Girl. While people of color are making strides, there still is much progress to be made. At the Television Critics Association press tour two weeks ago, the first question asked of the Fresh Off The Boat panel was,  regrettably, about chopsticks.

While it remains to be seen how well Telenovela and Fresh Off The Boat will do in the ratings, it appears that the audience is there for shows featuring people of color. Three weeks ago, Empire premiered on FOX as one of the biggest shows of the year along with the fall premiere of How to Get Away with Murder. Not only did Empire premiere huge, it has done something very rare. Two weeks ago, its ratings increased. Last week, its ratings increased again, a feat almost unheard of in television.

The ratings for How to Get Away with Murder and Empire should put network execs at ease. As long as the audience is there, then the networks will make advertising dollars and more shows featuring people will be green-lighted. To borrow a phrase from Field of Dreams, if you air it, they will watch.