GLAAD's 2010 Network Responsibility Index: NBC Made an Effort, But Did Any GLBT Characters Survive?

Last week, GLAAD released its 4^th annual Network Responsibility Index. The purpose of the report is to evaluate GLBT representation on television by trying to assign a quantitative number to GLBT representation on primetime television for the five major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, The CW, Fox, NBC) and the top ten cable networks (MTV, ABC Family, TNT, Showtime, Lifetime, FX, HBO, USA, A&E, TBS).

For an explanation of how GLAAD defines their methodology, please read our post Monday on GLAAD’s rating for The CW. Our look at Fox’s representation was improvedwhile  ABC continued to have a stellar record.

Today we’re going to take a look at NBC, which broke new ground years ago with a gay lead in Will & Grace, but hasn’t done much for GLBT representation since. Last year NBC received a failing grade from GLAAD with only 8% of the network's televised hours featuring gay content.

This year NBC struggled in the primetime ratings due to the dismal performance of The Jay Leno Show, but did add enough gay content to the lineup to reach 13% and earn an “Adequate” rating from GLAAD. Sadly, almost every series that earned NBC that rating has since been canceled leaving the network in a hole as the fall season approaches.

NBC produces a similar number of primetime hours as does ABC (1,142), but produces only 151 inclusive hours, fewer than The CW does on half the number of hours produced.

And while reality programming managed to help even the dismal performance of CBS, the Peacock network did not benefit from numerous hours of reality television since none of their shows regularly featured a gay contestant. At best, the networked managed to have out gay people single episodes of The Marriage Ref helping a gay married couple, or Tim Gunn giving makeovers on The Biggest Loser.

The perfect celebrity refs were Kathy Griffin and Nathan Lane.