New CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller thinks the network is doing just fine on diversity — and he points to himself as an example of that.
“I’m just a gay guy from Indiana who doesn’t play basketball,” Geller said Tuesday during a TCA panel. “But now I’m the entertainment president of CBS.”
Asked about the network’s dismal onscreen diversity record — CBS ranked last this season, according to a GLAAD survey — Geller defended that record.
“There is diversity at CBS and it exists in front of the camera, it exists behind the camera,” he said. “It exists in our offices. Can we do better? I think we are.”
“I’m diverse,” he said. “I fall into the LGBTQ category. I mentioned my husband earlier and I talk about him publicly because I want to normalize my diversity. CBS will always reflect what America looks like. And that is always evolving and changing.”
Geller was tapped in September to succeed Nina Tassler as the network’s entertainment president.
Geller joined CBS in 2001 as a director, then was promoted to vice president of current programming. He then moved to the studio division as senior vice president. In 2013, he was named executive vice president, overseeing current programmming for the studio, the network and the CW.
He had previously worked in the drama department at 20th Century Fox Television.