CBS opened its day at TCA with a slide show of all of its diverse casting for this fall, but that was not enough to assuage critics who pelted CBS Entertainment President Glenn Geller with questions about the lack of diversity among show leads and showrunners at the network.

“At CBS, we’re very mindful about diversity and inclusion. We need to do better and we know it,” said Geller. “In terms of leads, we are less diverse than last year. But in our ensemble diversity, we are more diverse than last year. Our commitment to diversity is ongoing. “

That didn’t do much to stem the questions, with critics pointing out that when an article in Variety by Maureen Ryan criticized FX for not having enough diversity in its directing ranks, FX immediately set out to fix it, making demonstrable progress over a short amount of time.

As NPR’s Eric Deggans said: “Every lead is a white male, every showrunner is a white male and you’ve had years to fix this.”

Another critic added: “You are saying this is what the pilot system gave you. Do you not look at the pilot process and say ‘what are some things we can do to fix it so we don’t have to mitigate it later?’”

“We are not trying to make up for something, that’s what we do on a daily basis,” Geller said.

Critics also asked Geller, who himself is openly gay, what progress the network is making toward including people of sexual identities in its programs.

“This is a very personal topic for me. In terms of LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender] representation, there are more characters coming on this year than ever before,” Geller said, specifically singling out new series Bull, Great Indoors, Code Black and NCIS New Orleans.

He also noted that Laverne Cox – the breakout star of Netflix’s Orange is the New Black, who will star in Fox’s live version of The Rocky Horror Picture Show in October – will be the first transgender actress ever to play a transgendered person on network TV, a casting initiative he called “historic.”

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CBS does produce a Diversity Showcase every year to look for new diverse talent, Geller pointed out. The network also goes on a tour of colleges every year to “talk to graduates about opportunities in this industry,” said Geller. “That leads to diverse individuals having a shot at getting a job where one day they could be in a key role. It’s much more of a 360-degree approach.”

In other news:

—CBS renewed summer series Zoo, which also is available on Netflix, for a third season.

—It renewed summer reality series Big Brother for seasons 17 and 18. The show also will air on CBS’ streaming service, CBS All Access, later this fall.

—The Late Show with Stephen Colbert will air live episodes after the presidential and vice presidential debates on Monday, Sept. 26, Tuesday, Oct. 4 and Wednesday, Oct. 19.

—CBS will air a six-hour limited series, The Case of: Jonbenet Ramsey, a docuseries examining the murder of the young beauty queen, with night one premiering Sunday, Sept. 18.

[Image courtesy of Variety]

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