In the Year of Heated Rivalry, LGBTQ+ Characters Dropped on TV by 25%

While shows like Heated Rivalry that prominently feature LGBTQ+ characters may seem to be more popular than ever, the most recent year in television continued a downward trend when it came to onscreen representation. According to GLAAD’s annual “Where We Are on TV” report, queer and trans on-screen roles have hit their lowest point on both cable and broadcast television in over a decade.The LGBTQ+ media advocacy group GLAAD found that the number of LGBTQ+ characters on television in the 2025-2026 season overall fell 25% year over year, down to 369 characters overall. That number is around half of what LGBTQ+ representation was on television just four years ago, when there were 637 queer and trans characters across streaming, broadcast, and cable.However, not every letter in the LGBTQ+ acronym was hit the same. Trans characters were particularly affected by the fall in representation, with 79% of trans roles disappearing between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 seasons, bringing 33 characters down to seven. And, of those seven roles, none are set to come back. These losses are even worse for LGBTQ+ characters of color, including Ironheart and The Pitt. The number of Black, Latinx, AAPI, multiracial, and MENA LGBTQ+ characters are all down year over year. Representation fell across all groups, except for nonbinary characters, which saw a 33% rise in on-screen depictions. People who want to see LGBTQ+ characters are most likely to find them on streaming, which currently accounts for three-quarters of the total. Streaming lost the highest number of characters, with 96 LGBTQ+ roles disappearing year over year, compared to 17 on cable and seven on traditional networks.Most concerning for GLAAD is that the 2025-2026 television year has seen the lowest number of LGBTQ+ characters on broadcast and cable in over a decade, with cable hitting a 16-year low and broadcast a 12-year low.The non-streaming networks most likely to have LGBTQ+ characters are HBO and ABC, per the report.