Peacock sets curve in NOW survey

Hollywood Reporter - May 23, 2000

By Michele Greppi

NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- After spending much of February as couch potatoes with an eye for the way the Big Four networks portray women in primetime, the National Organization for Women says "shame on Fox" and "not bad, NBC."

At a sparsely attended and low-decibel news conference Monday in a New York park, NOW president Patricia Ireland explained how feminists, in teams of four, watched about 165 shows in an admittedly subjective exercise that's part of the organization's "Watch Out, Listen Up!" campaign.

By giving points for positive role models and social responsibility and deducting points for stereotyping and otherwise exploiting, dissing or dismissing women, NOW came up with a report card for each of the major networks.

NBC got a B+ because of the richness of women's roles in such series as "ER," "Providence" and "Will & Grace" and in spite of such "lowlights" as "Just Shoot Me," "3rd Rock From the Sun" and the recently canceled "Jesse."

Fox got a D+, with disapproving mentions for such things as the gender composition of "Cops," "World's Wildest Police Videos," the live special that had daredevil Robbie Knievel leaping a train on his motorcycle and the infamous "Who Wants to Marry a Multi-Millionaire?" offsetting points for such series as "Ally McBeal" and "Party of Five."

Getting a C+ was CBS, grabbing points for such series as "Judging Amy" and "Family Law" and losing points for Friday- and Saturday-night action shows and the JonBenet Ramsey miniseries.

ABC got a C, earning points for "Once & Again," "The Practice" and "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch" and losing points for the so-called "meanspiritedness" of such sitcoms as "The Drew Carey Show" and "Norm" and for "The Beach Boys: An American Family."

Game shows were knocked in general for having few female contestants and no women as hosts.

Sitcoms, says NOW's sketchy 15-page survey, "appear to offer very narrow views of women, in all senses of the word. Many analysts made note of the abundance of young, beautiful, thin, white women in comedy."

Although the networks took the hits Monday -- and picketing is planned at network stations in Los Angeles and Washington on May 30 -- Ireland said NOW plans to pressure advertisers because they are so leery of negative publicity.

"We are not calling a boycott per se," Ireland said.

"We certainly would like to move them toward the positive shows," said Ireland, who has not booked appointments with any advertisers.

Asked why NOW excluded programming of the WB Network and UPN, which target young viewers, from its survey, Ireland chalked it up to a combination of too many programs and too little time and the fact that there are no UPN stations in some of the screeners' cities.

"We'll certainly branch out. We'll go to cable. We'll go to the other networks," Ireland said.

"Just watch Lifetime," said two Snapple-drinking, beer-bellied, paint-spattered men who made a lot more noise as onlookers than Ireland's handful of T-shirted women did as protesters.

Nonetheless, they marched five blocks up Sixth Avenue to the headquarters of News Corp., the parent company of Fox, carrying poster board signs that read, "Shame on Fox 5!" and "Stop Degrading My Gender."

There was no official comment from Fox on Monday, nor from ABC.

A CBS spokesman said: "We are very proud of the female role models we have in such shows as 'Family Law' and 'Judging Amy' and 'Touched by an Angel,' (and) with the addition of such shows as Bette Midler and Christine Baranski's 'Welcome to New York,' we think we'll improve upon that track record."

NBC issued a statement saying, "NBC is proud of the women role models we've created on our network. ... From Dr. Sydney Hansen on 'Providence,' Officer Faith Yokas on 'Third Watch,' press secretary C.J. Gregg on 'The West Wing,' the many female doctors and nurses on 'ER,' to many other examples in our programming, NBC continues to portray women who are strong and smart -- women whom our viewers not only relate to but admire."


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