think the rya and the last dragon, the disney movie that came out is awesome. there s a lack of api representation in hollywood. the study found the api community accounted for less than 6% of speaking roles, and less than 4% of leads in hollywood, your thoughts. a lot of thoughts. the oscars, one, their viewership, their ratings has been going down for years. i think the lowest viewer ship they have seen is last year, and even though we saw historical firsts, the academy has been working hard to diversify their membership, more women, more people of color, but it remains overwhelmingly white and male and so like this kind of discourse and scrutiny, we re going to see it every single year. one of the things that really stood out to me, and i watch this every single year during nominations has been the best actress category.
in this year of pandemic. i love the oscars, so this is like my super bowl, my olympics, i m really excited, even as i agree, the academy has a lot of work to do to be truly representative. even just of hollywood, let alone our country. and more representation in every category, right, there s not enough api representation, not enough latino representation. not enough indigenous representation, so happy to see this but also still room for improvement. katie, if there were going to be oscars for best new show, i m going to bet that katie phang s new show on msnbc would be nominated. i m so thrilled, honestly, katie, i was so thrilled when i heard the news that you are getting a show. you re so fire on camera. your personality leaps off the screen, tell us what we can see on this network every saturday and sunday at 7:00 a.m. so it will be original programming. it is the goal to be fresh and innovative, you know, i told somebody i m a trending topic today on the cross connection,
growing. there are a lot of people who came over on h-1b visas and have their green card and they re going to be citizes soon and they re already active in the grassroots. it s not surprising and it s welcoming to see the grassroots support and the involvement of asian american immigrants. 30% in your district? that s extraordinary! asian americans make up 7% of the state population. what needs to be done to get more aapi representation in government, at all levels? absolutely. well, one of the things i wanted to do when i was elected, i was the first south asian and indian american elected here, and i wanted to have parents bring their kids to my swearing in ceremony. i was sworn in, the first person in 400 years in virginia s history and i wanted to show the kids here, yes, you can get involved in the economy and as doctors, lawyers, engineers, but