Black Consumers Embrace Streaming; BET Plus Renews 'Diarra From Detroit' Series; 'Being Mary Jane' in the CIC Classic TV Series Spotlight
Top Story: Almost Half of Blacks Rely Exclusively on Streaming Services
Black viewers are subscribing to cable, satellite, and streaming services at higher percentages than the general population, with streaming services dominating overall subscription trends, according to a recent report from Horowitz Research.
Nearly half (46%) of Black consumers subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite service, compared to 44% of the total population, according to the FOCUS Black Volume 1: Subscriptions 2025 Horowitz Research report.
At the same time, 86% of Black consumers subscribe to or have access to a subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) streaming service like Netflix, Peacock, or Max, compared to 81% of the general population, according to the survey.
Streaming services overall have become the leading platform of choice for Black viewers, with 47% of Black consumers relying on streaming services as their only source for TV viewing, up from just 5% a decade ago, according to the survey. Another 5% of consumers subscribe only to a virtual multichannel video programming distribution service such as Hulu TV and YouTube TV.
Among streaming services, 63% of Black viewers subscribed to or have access to Netflix, followed by Prime Video (60%), Disney Plus (35%), Hulu (32%), and Peacock (31%), according to Horowitz.
Stories You May Have Missed This Week
Kerri Washington To Develop ‘Desperate Housewives’ Offshoot
A reimagining of ABC’s dramedy Desperate Housewives from actress/producer Kerri Washington is in the works at Onyx Collective, according to Deadline. The series, Wisteria Lane, will focus on a group of five different friends with varying degrees of secrets who all live on a picture-perfect street called Wisteria Lane. It's unclear if Washington will star in the series, said Deadline. Washington and Onyx Collective – a division of the Walt Disney Company – have worked together on several shows in the past, including Reasonable Doubt and UnPrisoned, both streaming on Hulu.
BET Plus Renews ‘Diarra From Detroit’ Original Series
BET Plus and BET Studios’ original dramedy series Diarra From Detroit will return for more intrigue in season two. Series creator, executive producer, and star Diarra Kilpatrick will return for season two along with Bryan Terrell Clark, DomiNque Perry, and Jon Chaffin, according to the streaming service. Season one of the series followed a divorcing schoolteacher (Kilpatrick) who refuses to believe that she’s been ghosted by her rebound Tinder date, leading her into a decades-old mystery rooted in the Detroit underworld. During its early 2025 linear run on BET, the series ranked as the top new series on cable among Black viewers year-to-date, according to the company.
Samira Wiley Says She Will Not Appear in ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel
Emmy-winning actress Samira Wiley says she’s finished with the dystopian drama series The Handmaid’s Tale after its sixth and final season, saying she won’t be a part of the show’s planned sequel The Testaments, according to The Grio. Wiley, who played Moira Strand in all six seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale, said the role was emotionally taxing, adding that she had to use certain techniques to manage her mental health. In the series, Wiley’s Moira befriends the show’s lead character June, played by Elizabeth Moss, as they navigate through a violent world in which women have no rights. Wiley’s performance in the series earned her a 2018 Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series. The sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale is currently streaming on Hulu. The Testaments series takes place 15 years after the events of the current season of The Handmaid’s Tale.
TV Celebrity Birthdays (April 26-May 3)
April 26: Debra Wilson (Mad TV). Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Without a Trace). April 29: Master P (Romeo!). April 30: Michael Wright (Oz). May 1: Darius McCrary (Family Matters), Drew Sidora (That’s So Raven). May 2: Dwayne Johnson (Ballers) May 3: Dule Hill (The West Wing, Psych, The Wonder Years)
CIC Classic TV Series Spotlight: `Being Mary Jane’
Series Debut: January 2014
Number of Seasons: 4
Series Stars: Gabrielle Union, Lisa Vidal, Margaret Avery, Richard Brooks, Richard Roundtree, B. J. Britt, Raven Goodwin.
Series Synopsis: Being Mary Jane follows the professional and personal life of TV news anchor Pauletta “Mary Jane Paul” Patterson (Union). She at times struggles to balance her ambitious career objectives with her commitments to her family, including her possessive mother (Avery), sympathetic father (Roundtree), brothers (Brooks and Britt), and niece (Goodwin), along with her often complicated and messy romantic relationships. Through it all, Mary Jane relies on the support and advice of her best friend, Kara Lynch (Vidal). Guest stars throughout the seasons included Loretta Devine, Salli Richardson, Morris Chestnut, Kyle Massey, Omari Hardwick, and Michael Ealy.
Awards/Acknowledgements: Being Mary Jane was BET’s first one-hour drama and one of its most successful original series. The series debuted as a movie in 2013 before launching as a weekly series in 2014. Critics lauded Union’s portrayal of the strong but flawed Mary Jane, and her performance won her a 2014 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. Series creator Mara Brock Akil also won an Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Dramatic Series. After four seasons, Being Mary Jane ended in 2019 with a two-hour movie.
What’s New On TV:
May 2: Unseen (returning series), Netflix
May 8: Forever (drama series), Netflix