GLAAD Report Ranks TV Networks: Praises ABC, Dings Fox

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, released a report on Monday rating the amount of GLBT inclusion and diversity on the various TV networks. Of the five broadcast networks examined, ABC came in first and Fox was last. Of the ten cable networks, FX came in first and TNT was last.

In this, their second annual such report, GLAAD looked at all primetime programming on each of these 15 networks for the year ending on May 31 — 4,911 hours in all — and noted how often each network included some kind of GLBT representation. Taking into account the amount and quality of the representation, as well as racial and gender diversity, GLAAD gave each of the 15 networks reviewed a rating: excellent, good, adequate, or failing.

No network received an “excellent” rating, but of the broadcast networks, ABC and the CW were both rated “good,” and both networks significantly increased their relatively high degree of GLBT inclusion from the year before. Meanwhile, CBS was rated “adequate,” and NBC and Fox were given “failing” ratings. CBS, NBC, and Fox all had about the same amount of GLBT inclusion as the year before.

Of the cable networks, FX, HBO, and Showtime were all rated “good,” Lifetime and MTV were rated “adequate,” and A&E, Spike, TBS, USA, and TNT were given “failing” grades.

TNT, the lowest rated of all the networks looked at, had only a single hour of GLBT-inclusive programming — an episode of The Closer.

“There’s been progress in terms of LGBT visibility on television,” said Damon Romine, GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Director who authored the study. “Television networks now need to find ways to reflect our diversity. If you tune into a network and their only image is that of a gay white male, it’s not reflective of our community.”

When asked by AfterElton.com about his network’s latest “failing” rating, Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly said, “I can say we've got several shows now moving forward with gay characters in them. Right now we're in production on a pilot called Virtuality that Ron Moore and Michael Taylor created and Peter Berg is directing. It's got a gay relationship that is as dimensional and honest as anything I've ever seen portrayed on television right now. If we move forward on that, I think that is something to really note."

Fox Entertainment President Kevin Reilly

Photo credit: Michael Buckner/Getty Images

In April, when confronted by NBC’s low rating from the year before, Ben Silverman, Co-Chairman of NBC Entertainment, vowed to AfterElton.com, “I can only say — that will change under my watch.”

As for highest-rated ABC, home to Ugly Betty and Brothers & Sisters, in an interview with AfterElton.com also in April, ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson talked about his network’s strong commitment to diversity, but admitted, “I think a lot of times it has to do with the creative talent that we’re working with, in terms of what their voices are, what stories they want to tell, what characters they have in mind.”