‘Grey’s Anatomy’ season 10: Ellen Pompeo not a fan of Emmy telecast

A few short days before the premiere of “Grey’s Anatomy” season 10, Ellen Pompeo is clearly making her thoughts known about another television program that was at one point a major supporter of the show: The Primetime Emmy Awards.

So what was her problem with it? It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that her show was left in the cold; instead, she reportedly told the Associated Press that she found the entire telecast to be problematic when it comes to the diversity (or lack thereof) that was present in it from start to finish:

“I didn’t see any diversity in the Emmys at all. The Emmys felt so dated to me … That dance number was embarrassing. Did you see one person of color in that dance number?

“I’m extremely proud of our very, very diverse cast which represents the world that I walk around in every day.”

To us, most everything that we look at from a diversity standpoint comes via the awards handed out and the people who were nominated, and there was at least a little bit of diversity there with Kerry Washington and Don Cheadle. One of the winners in Bobby Cannavale has a Cuban and Italian background. However, if you look at the vast majority of the other major acting award-winners, there is one common thread: They are all white. While it’s troubling, it is more indicative of the roles right now being cast for TV rather than any major oversight on the part of the Emmys themselves. Perhaps the two biggest minorities left out of the nomination list this year were Mindy Kaling and Sandra Oh.

As for the dance numbers and other happenings on stage, this is somewhat more problematic. As a matter of fact, the lack of variety and culture may be one of many things that were wrong with last night’s mostly-boring telecast, which had some entertainment from the winners but very little else.

Luckily, there are some great examples of diversity on television this fall; we just hope that viewers catch their shows, and any problems that there were this year can be corrected.

If you want to take a look at all of our Emmy coverage, including a winners’ list and some other reaction, just be sure to visit the link here.

Photo: ABC