GLAAD Report Ranks TV Networks: Praises ABC, Dings Fox

Romine thinks that both creative talent and network executives play an important role in GLBT inclusion. “The networks have a responsibility to create an environment where showrunners are allowed to be inclusive and creative,” he said. “You have to open yourself up to that, show that you’re a network that’s interested in gay characters.”

Damon Romine, GLAAD’s Entertainment Media Director

Fox’s Kevin Reilly pointed out that GLAAD’s ratings are often strongly impacted by the presence, or cancellation of a single show. “Sometimes you've actually got great representation and then for commercial or creative reasons, something gets canceled and your numbers go down,” he said.

GLAAD admits in the report that their ratings were often strongly impacted by a single show with a reoccurring gay character. FX’s high rating came, in large part, due to Nip/Tuck which included a gay, lesbian, or bisexual character in almost every episode. Meanwhile, NBC’s rating slipped from last year, in part, because a lesbian character left ER.

But in determining their rankings, GLAAD took the quality of a network’s GLBT representation into account, not just quantity. “By the numbers, it looks like Spike had all this gay content,” Romine said. “They had a miniseries with a minor gay character. Even though they had a high number [in our ranking system], this was their only representation, so we’re failing the network.”

According to the report, GLBT characters on many networks still tend to be gay white men. GLAAD praises HBO for featuring television’s most racially diverse GLBT programming. Another annual GLAAD report, breaking down the specific number of GLBT characters on television, as well as the racial and gender percentages, will be released this fall.

AfterElton.com produces its own annual rating of the networks. In our last rating in 2007, we gave ABC our highest rating of an A-; we gave the CW a B-; we gave both CBS and Fox a C+; and we gave NBC a C.

For more information on GLAAD’s latest report, go here. See GLAAD’s entire report here.