CBS President Nina Tassler on network's lack of gay visibility: "We want to do better." Yet somehow they don't...

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler

In April of last year, AfterElton.com published an indepth article examining gay representation on network television. We talked to each of the network's entertainment presidents to find out how their network approached gay visibility and, in the case of those networks with little representation, what they could do better.

CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler appeared Monday at the Television Critics Association Summer Tour in Los Angeles and I asked her about her network's failing grade from GLAAD in its annual report about gay visibility on television.

Said Tassler:

First of all, it is a source of concern for me personally and for the network. We have a fundamental commitment to the philosophy of diversity across the schedule and representation of gays and lesbians on air. The interesting thing is that I do think we have good representation in our non-scripted programming, but we certainly have to include [GLBT characters] in our scripted programming. And what I'm hearing ... several of our programs going into development have gay and lesbian characters already pitched into the show's themselves. Like I said, it's an area we need to work on, need to focus on and hopefully we'lll do better next year.

Hmm, for some reason this sounds kind of familiar. Oh, yeah, last April, Tassler was one of the network executives we asked about the issue as part of our indepth report on Gays in Primetime. Said Tassler at the time:

...that “philosophically” what their network is about is a “policy of inclusion,” that when it comes to the GLBT community, she feels a “personal investment in ensuring that those portrayals are open-minded and positive.” ... When it’s pointed out that these are isolated episodes and there are currently no recurring GLBT characters on CBS, Tassler concedes, “It is few and far between.” And she believes that when it comes to getting out the message that regular gay characters are welcomed on CBS, “I know we haven’t done enough. And I know we can do more.”

Pretty words, but the follow through was non-existent. But, hey, they have a philosophy of inclusion! 

It's pretty shocking, frankly.

Luke Adams with his mother Margie, Spencer Duhm from Survivor

Tassler is correct that CBS has done all right with their reality programming, but a viewer's relationship with reality show participants is fundamentally different than those with scripted characters. Reality show contestants are on for one season, are part of a cast that usually numbers at least a dozen (meaning not much visibility for the gay contestant) and they usually don't last a full season anyway excepting when a gay competitor makes it to the finale of The Amazing Race, Big Brother or Survivor.

Of course, that's assuming the network doesn't edit out any mention the person is gay such as The Amazing Race did last season in the case of Luke Adams.

I'm sure Tassler is sincere and feels bad that CBS got an "F" from GLAAD, but the fact of the matter is that her answer at the TCA is pretty much the answer she gave us last year. And call me crazy, but I'm not expecting the answer to be much better next year.