Fresh Off the Boat is a huge hit for ABC. The sitcom, based on chef Eddie Huang’s memoir of the same name, was watched by 5.98 million viewers on Tuesday night, which is more than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and New Girl, AND it was going against NBC’s mega-popular The Voice. Not that anyone should be surprised. Flavorwire’s Pilot Viruet wrote an interesting article about how we shouldn’t be taken aback that diverse shows like Fresh Off the Boat are big hits. She wrote, “The fact that there is surprise about Empire or Black-ish’s success is almost offensive; of course these are shows that we wanted and shows that we will watch — we just never had them before.”
In fact, it’s been 20 years since the last sitcom with an Asian cast: Margaret Cho’s All-American Girl, which was canceled after one season. Fresh star Randall Park, who was the best thing about The Interview (he’ll also be in Netflix’s Wet Hot revival), has a guess for why that is.
“There are many theories as to why that is,” says Park, a 40-year-old Korean-American, “but in simple terms it’s just racism.” (Via)
In that Rolling Stone profile, Park commented on the lack of love for The Interview, saying, “I think it was sharp satire, but it was lost in all the poop jokes with the critics.” Fresh Off the Boat isn’t having a similar problem. It’s the rare well-received show that’s a huge success. About time.
Via Rolling Stone
