Study: Network TV Likes Sex, Not Marriage

LOS ANGELES — Marriage gets little respect on network TV shows that instead revel in the pleasures of extramarital and even kinky sex, according to a study released Tuesday.

The study by the Parents Television Council includes a strongly worded condemnation of prime-time TV, contending it "seems to be actively seeking to undermine marriage by consistently painting it in a negative light."

Even more troubling, according to the watchdog group, is what it characterized as TV's recent obsession with what it termed "outre" or bizarre behavior, including partner swapping and pedophilia.

As for references to pornography, sex toys and "kinky" behavior, those are now common on TV, the report said. Visual references to practices such as voyeurism and sadomasochistic sex outnumbered married-sex references by a ratio approaching 3 to 1.

The effect on young viewers is dire, the Parents Television Council contends.

Behavior that once was seen as "fringe, immoral or socially destructive have been given the imprimatur of acceptability by the television industry" and children are absorbing or even imitating it, the report contends.

Parents don't necessarily have the tools to identify programs they may want to block via the V-chip, according to the study: It says designations such as "S," signaling sexual content, were applied inconsistently and inaccurately.

ABC, CBS, CW, Fox and NBC, the networks in the study, all declined comment.

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James Steyer, CEO of nonprofit Common Sense Media, which helps parents sift through media offerings to decide what's right for their children, said he couldn't vouch for the Parents Television Council's research but lauded the effort.

While the council takes a very traditional view of society and pop culture, "I respect it," Steyer said Tuesday. "There are millions of Americans that feel this way," he said.

It's legitimate to scrutinize TV's take on marriage and sexuality given its influence on children, Steyer said.

But TV Watch, a nonpartisan coalition that counts networks among its members and argues that individuals and not government should decide what's seen, fired a volley at the council.

"The Parents Television Council won't be satisfied with television content until they convince the government to enforce their personal, selective judgments," Jim Dyke, executive director of TV Watch, said in a statement.

The study analyzed four weeks of scripted shows on the major networks at the start of the 2007-08 season, noting content including depictions of sex; implied sex; discussions on the subject, and visual references to strippers, pornography and other aspects of sexuality.

Among the networks overall, references to adultery outnumbered references to marital sex by 2 to 1. The "family hour" _ the first hour of prime-time TV, which draws the most young viewers _ contained the highest ratio of references to non-married vs. married sex, the study found.

Shows held up as containing bad examples of TV behavior included "Grey's Anatomy," with the report citing a scene with singles Meredith and Derek in bed, and "Boston Legal," for an exchange about prostitution.

"Desperate Housewives" was singled out for a bedroom scene involving Gabrielle and Carlos, who divorced and then, while in other relationships, had sex.

Some shows have better attitudes toward marriage although they're not necessarily appropriate for families with young children, said Tim Winter, council president.

The drama "Friday Night Lights" is "better than most in showing positive portrayals of marital relations and intimacy," he said in a telephone conference, while the sitcom "Everybody Hates Chris" depicts a strong married relationship.

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On the Net:

Parents Television Council: http://www.parentstv.org

Common Sense Media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org

TV Watch: http://www.TelevisionWatch.org

Comments

[bethinCary]

Gee there's a surprise..

It's just more evidence of the male-dominated patriarchal system at work-trying to manipulate the public to conform to it's patriarchal stereotypes of what MEN find important...

Sure, sex can be hot and steamy..but is sex like that all the time with one person?
Of course not...
Endorphins and other chemicals play a part in sex which eb & flow from age and situations..and when you first meet...
But it's also unrealistic to think "euphoria" is real or long-lasting..
Jumping into bed-as TV wants us all to belive is the norm-only creates a confusing emotional scene--when you jump into bed with someone whom you realize-is someone you don't respect or treats you with respect (your own fault-since you never bothered to actually find this out on your own beforehand).
So you become enslaved to the fantasy of sex-as love: when the reality of it, and your own intuition-don't support that decision and can make one feel even worse about themselves when reality hits.
It also places the false premise-that you "need" another person-to make you happy.
What you NEED to do-is BE happy first-by finding ones' own strength w/in..

[RevMetheus]

see my reply to Rockerbabe. Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are certainly shows that all young men tune in to watch for the hot affairs.

Maybe if women didnt want to be titillated and disgusted by what they watch, we wouldnt have so many shows involving affairs (or hell, any daytime drama for that matter.)

Yep, all those shows are definitely kept on the air by the millions of men that watch them, Sex In The City is in rerun so that a new generation of young men can watch sex and promiscuousness...sure.

[ladyv]

I like television sex over television marriage when the sex in question includes Chuck Bass, Blair Waldorf, and a limo. Or without a limo, same diff.

[mh01]

No way, television likes sex over marriage? Shocking.

I won't advocate more government control, but we sure could use a little corporate responsibility about what they put out there and when.

Parents need to take responsibility and monitor what their kids watch. Granted with pollution coming at them from all angles and all kinds of media its not easy.

But no-one said being a parent was easy.

[mdfinch]

TV like movies (like art) reflect the trend in society. TV programs do not create bad values but they do reinforce values that are already there. If people don't watch TV programs (linked to ratings) they go away.

Hollywood may have a agenda but influence of "interactive" parents still override Hollywood values. If kids see parents enjoying a low values TV program and preceive that parents think it is a "cool" program then kids tend to feel the same way. Ask kids who they want to be elected President and you will find out what their parents are thinking.

Allowing TV to be the parents babysitter is the actual problem. Our culture has been making a slide toward more work (by both parents) to maintain a particular standard of living which leaves less time with children. Then parents want to blame TV programming for the preceived general decline of cultural values. The blame isn't on TV or Hollywood it is the decline in interaction with children.

This is prevalent in other areas of our culture as well. As we become a society where individuals are more and more isolated, shared values will continue to decline. Divorce rate is another example of the same problems, do we want to blame TV for divorce rates.

[BlackJAC]

Ironically, the geographic region Hollywood was founded by fundamentalist Christians while the industry Hollywood was founded by poor immigrant Jewish kids from broken homes who wanted to show families that stayed together and that hard work was the path to prosperity. Go figure.

[Bettysdad]

All they need to do, is start their own network, create content, and get the public to watch it.

Uh huh.

[Meanwhile]

It's called the Hallmark channel. Oh, wait. You said "get the public to watch it." Never mind.

[BlackJAC]

You mean like PAX TV?

[Gidster]

There is a way to keep kids from objectionable material...don't let them watch it!
On the other hand our child safety fetish threatens to remove any form of entertainment that is not 6 year old safe.

[nastyvirus]

Television is like a surrogate nanny. Parents need to fire Miss Fine and interact with their kids.

[fluentinsilence]

When half of marriages fail and the courts favor the female, that positive light that many are aching for is fading fast. If anything, we need to be less prudish and have more sex. On with the infidelity!

[mulegino]

Gratuitous sex (not sex itself) or references thereto is, like gratuitous violence, the last resort for those who suffer from an absolute dearth of creativity, wit, irony and aesthetic sense, just as the constant use of expletives in place of adjectives usually indicates a lack of vocabulary.
Television's decline began the moment that it started to take itself seriously as an idispensible part of American life, as opposed to a rather limited and supercillious pastime. Gresham's law prevailed-bad programming slowly drove out good programming. Television really became, in Steve Allen's words, "the theater of the mindless." Although there may be a few gems in the manure pile, it's really not worth sorting through. American consumers should wake up and not act like pigs at the trough-eating any slop served up to them just because it's there. Read a book or rent a good film, tune out and just say no to Corporate America's dumbing down of the American citizen.

[mredder4]

Most of the bizarre sexual content appears on pretty straight-laced shows, like Law and Order: SVU and pretty much any and every CSI incarnation. It usually involves the discovery of some disgusting death scene, with flashbacks and revelations revealing just what the particular terrible crime was, all with visuals. It's actually kind of perverted that the top-rated shows in America are about death and sex or usually a combination of the two. What does it say about viewers, and what does it say about programmers that throw up their hands and say "What do you want us to do, it's popular and generates a lot of revenue. What, should we replace a show like that with something that has "values"?" (I used quotes because I'm not on board the whole values-protect-us-what-about-the-children panic attack)

Studies like these aren't going to shock anyone who pays attention to the most popular dramas on TV and their level of viewers. This study does nothing more than confirm a trend that's been going on since medical dramas began showing simulated surgery on TV and cop dramas showed gunfights, murder victims, and drug use.

Don't be shocked, America. The networks know the truth about TV programming with controversial themes: if you produce it, they will watch.