Reza Aslan, the host of CNN’s Believer, has revealed how he believes a Muslim-American sitcom he was developing at ABC about a family moving from Iran to Oklahoma was “thrown aside” by the network when Donald Trump was elected president.
ABC returned rights to the program to Aslan, who is now shopping it around at other networks.
The show was based on Aslan’s family’s own experiences and was alleged deemed not of interest to the half of the country that voted for the far-right Republican.
Last year, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said the network needed to pay more attention “to some of the true realities of what life is like for everyday Americans in our dramas” and in particular the “economically anxious”.