“Family Reunion” Executive Producer Slams The Academy For Unequal Ruling In Award Nominations: “What I do know is that Family Reunion was treated differently”

Producer and writer Meg DeLoatch has a long resume filled with 20 years of work in Hollywood. The Family Matters co-producer witnessed the television industry transform from Jim Crow Hollywood to the new mainstream Hollywood.

In a storytime article on the Hollywood Reporter, DeLoatch said although the industry had changed a lot since she first stepped foot in Hollywood, she added that it has not improved in diversity and inclusion.

In 2019, DeLoatch created the Black Netflix sitcom ”Family Reunion,” hiring a staff full of Black writers and a diverse crew.

The Netflix series was nominated for the 2020 Writers Guild Awards in the children episodic, long-form and specials category. ”Family Reunion” also won the 2020 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Children’s Program.

The writer said Netflix was so proud of the series that it submitted it in the children’s category for the Daytime Emmys, marking the first time DeLoatch’s work joined the Academy.

“We thought this was our time,” she said. “This show was our ticket to acceptance and the appreciation of mainstream Hollywood.”

The producer said she was surprised when she learned that the Academy swapped the show from the Daytime Emmy to compete in the Primetime Emmy’s children’s program category.

“Their reasoning was that if we aired on network television, we would be programmed in primetime. While other similar shows didn’t receive this treatment, we had no choice and acquiesced,” she said

DeLoatch said the organization recanted its statement, then said that the children’s series was not eligible to compete it the children’s category because “they just didn’t think it really is a kids’ show.”

“When I protested that Fuller House, another multigenerational show (on which I was staffed during season three) was eligible for the category, I was told that it was “grandfathered in” because it competed in the category in the past,” she continued.

The series creator said she fought for a peer review of the decision but received a “hard no.”

DeLoatch said she understands that the Academy has the right to enforce its own rules, but it is not fair when the rules are not applied evenly.

“Was what happened to my show racism? I don’t know … What I do know is that Family Reunion was treated differently — dare I say, separate and unequally — than a similar white show.”

The writer said that while she wishes all the children’s series nominees the best, she will not be attending the ceremony despite having a nomination in the best comedy category.

“To Hollywood at large, I say, do better, dammit. To the Television Academy, I say, give me my damn money back.”