'The Chi' creator Lena Waithe talks about why she had more influence on the current season of the show

CHICAGO - Last month writing in Variety, Lena Waithe proposed an idea for tackling Hollywood's persistent lack of diversity.

If companies are serious about real change, then there should be financial penalties for projects (or entire networks and studios) that fall short. "Money is the only language people in Hollywood understand," Waithe wrote.

I asked her to expand upon some of those thoughts when we talked earlier this week. Just minutes after we hung up, CBS announced that it was earmarking at least 25% of future script development budgets to "projects created or co-created by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)."

CBS said it is also setting a target for writers' rooms to be staffed with a minimum 40% BIPOC representation for the 2021-2022 season and 50% the following season.

With Waithe's idea in mind, I was curious how (or even if) CBS plans to hold showrunners accountable. So I asked the network: Will there be fines? The answer was neither