(CNS) Posted Wednesday July 28, 2010 - 3:51pm
After receiving failing grades from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for three consecutive seasons for the inclusiveness of its prime-time programming to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community, CBS announced today it will add gay or lesbian characters to three series.
The brother of the attorney played by Julianna Margulies on the legal drama "The Good Wife' will be gay, CBS Entertainment President Nina Tassler said during the network's presentation at the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
The surrogate mother of the child of Jeff (Patrick Warburton) and Audrey (Megyn Price) on the comedy ``Rules of Engagement' will be a lesbian and there will be a gay recurring character on the new comedy "S#*! My Dad Says,' Tassler said.
GLAAD's fourth annual Network Responsibility Index released Friday found the 7 percent of CBS' prime-time programming from June 1, 2009 to May 31 was lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender inclusive, the vast majority of which came from the network's reality programming.
The index for June 1, 2008, to May 31, 2009, found that 5 percent of CBS' programming was lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender inclusive.
In her Aug. 3, 2009, address to television critics, Tassler said the amount of representation of gays and lesbians on CBS was a "source of concern" for the network, but could be remedied by several potential series under development for the 2010-2011 season.
A pilot CBS declined to order as a series for the 2010-2011 season and "a couple' of projects that failed to reach the pilot stage had gay or lesbian characters, Tassler said today.
"Once you come out of your pilot development season disappointed with yourself, you go into the current series season saying, `Look, let's look for every opportunity we can to improve the numbers we have represented in the casts,'' Tassler said.
"So we're going to do that and then we'll continue to focus on it as we go into the development season. We're not happy with ourselves.'
GLAAD President Jarrett Barrios issued a statement, saying "it is encouraging that CBS shares our disappointment in the network's lack of gay and transgender representation.'
"We are hopeful that the new characters will help build awareness and understanding of our community among viewers,' Barrios said.
Barrios said the group hopes Tassler ``makes true on this promise to bring the network more in line with the industry standard.'
Dan Gainor, vice president of the Alexandria, Va.-based Culture and Media Institute, a media watchdog group on cultural institutions, told City News Service, "two groups of people care about this -- GLAAD and their buddies in Hollywood.'
"They don't care anything about what viewers or particularly parents want,' Gainor said.
"Every study shows that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender are a very small portion of the population, a couple percent. They expect them to be in every program. To satisfy a complaining, popular, left-wing group, CBS is caving in immediately, re-writing programs.
"If conservatives complained about something, would CBS quickly turn around and make three of its characters Christian? Of course not. That's not how Hollywood works,' he said.
