Ed Vitagliano
AFA Journal news editor
January 2004 – As prime-time network television continues to degenerate in terms of objectionable content, viewers continue to abandon network TV. Are the two trends connected?
The number of viewers tuning in to see new network programs is down 12% from last year – a statistic that has network executives scurrying madly to find an explanation and come up with a tourniquet to stop the hemorrhaging.
The new fall television season not only failed to produce a bona fide breakout hit for any of the four major networks, but even older, successful series were losing fans. According to USA Today, NBC’s Friends – the number two show – lost 23% of its viewership, while number four ER (NBC) dropped 24%.
“Other top shows such as CBS’ Everybody Loves Raymond and ABC’s NYPD Blue also are down,” said USA Today’s Gary Levin.
Some point to television’s increasing competition from cable TV, the Internet, DVD rentals and video/computer games.
While the reality of viewer flight might be the result of a number of factors, it’s difficult to dismiss the growing offensiveness of many of today’s sitcoms, dramas and reality shows.
In a review of the new fall TV season, television critic Robert Bianco bemoaned the “sheer volume of randy behavior” by saying that, with sitcoms “the trouble isn’t the content of any one show; it’s the cumulative effect of so many shows covering the same topics. Yes, sex is part of life, but it’s not the only part.”
Such network commitment to sexed-up TV was demonstrated by Fox’s heavily-promoted Skin, a drama centered on, of all things, the porn industry.
“There’s too much emphasis on trying to be edgy,” Steve Sternberg of media-buying firm Magna Global USA told USA Today. “People don’t really want edgy – they want comfortable.”
That edginess encompasses more than just sex. Bianco also mentioned the increased use of gore in network dramas. “[T]he medium’s fascination with sex is only matched by its love affair with life’s other big subject, death,” he said, noting “the weekly lessons in increasingly gross anatomy on CSI, CSI: Miami, and Navy NCIS, to name a few.”
Profanity is also on the upswing. A recent study released by the Parents Television Council (PTC) recorded a dramatic increase in profanity on the networks during prime-time hours. Between 1998 and 2002, the PTC said in a press release, the amount of foul language jumped almost 95% in the first hour of prime-time – the so-called “Family Hour” – and more than 109% during the second hour.
“The entertainment industry has a responsibility to reduce this flood of vulgarity and the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] needs to get serious about enforcing broadcast decency laws and punishing broadcasters [that violate those laws] with fines and license revocations,” said PTC President Brent Bozell.
Sometimes networks pay the price for pushing crass instead of class, as was made quite evident after NBC hyped one of its new fall shows, Coupling. Billed as something of a Friends’ clone – except without as much friendship and way more sex talk – NBC seemed to revel in the show’s controversial nature.
NBC Entertainment President Jeff Zucker said that Coupling’s nonstop sex talk was meant to make the sitcom stand out. “I think that if there’s outrage over Coupling, so be it. That is good for us.”
When the viewers voted with their remote controls, however, the news wasn’t so good after all – the show was a huge flop. Canceled in early November, Zucker called Coupling “NBC’s biggest mistake of the season.”
In similar fashion, Skin was unceremoniously dumped by Fox due to a lack of viewer interest.
USA Today, 10/14/03, 11/3/03, 11/14/03; www.eonline.com, 9/22/03; www.parentstv.org, 11/6/03
