Is ABC primetime oversexed?

Cafe Society
1

I’m putting this in CS because it involves TV but it might be an IMHO thing so let’s see what happens.

My wife and I were watching TV the other night and saw some of the promos for upcoming shows on ABC. It seemed like every one involved people tearing each other’s clothes off and falling into bed. Doing a quick look at some of the primetime shows, I found the following which seem to be fixated on sex, despite what the show is supposed to really be about:
Big Shots
Boston Legal
Brothers and Sisters
Cashmere Mafia (starts 11/27)
Desperate Housewives
Dirty Sexy Money
Grey’s Anatomy
Men in Trees
Private Practice
Don’t get me wrong, I like sex and I like some of these shows but I thought that Primetime was supposed to be a family viewing time. Is it just me or is ABC overly fixated on sex in its shows?

2

Pushing Daisies isn’t particularly fixated on sex - it is, however, fixated on awesomeness. Seriously. Watch this show. It’s great - basically a fairy tale for grownups. (But not with sex, so far.)

3

Actually, it’s generally understood that “family viewing time” is the 8-9pm time slot during primetime. From there, the later you get, the racier you can be. None of the shows you’ve listed are in the 8-9 time slot (in fact, most of them are 10-11). In fact, ABC’s lineup is pretty tame for that hour (Extreme Makeover Home Edition, Dancing with the Stars, 20/20, etc.). In fact, the raciest show is probably Ugly Betty, which still has some strong pro-family overtones despite the vampy/soapy trappings.

Also agreed on Pushing Daisies (also 8-9). The pilot isn’t always representative of the quality of the series, but it’s off to a genuinely fresh, charming, and original start.

4

Ugly Betty is ABC, but not too over-sexed.

5

It does get a bit tiring doesn’t it.
Every female in every role constantly being in heat.
Grey’s Anatomy is the worst. Everybody’s fucking everybody 24/7 and dragging their personal life drama into their jobs.
Would you really wanted to be treated at a hospital where ever doctor is more concerned about humping their co-workers than actually treating patients?

6

Dirty Sexy Money also has very little sex. Sure there is the brother who is having an affair with a transvestite, but other than that the only major storyline that involves sex takes place entierly off screen and in the past. The sexiest thing about the show it it’s title.

And Pushing Daisies has no sex. If the main characters touch at all the girl will die. You could almost say that it is negativly sexed.

7

But surely in the US, you can’t show a breast in public?!
Just how ‘sexy’ are these shows?!

8

The power of suggestion can be an amazingly sexy tool.

Most of the shows aren’t using it, but it *can * be amazingly sexy.

9

I agree on Pushing Daisies. It’s cute, funny and entertaining. I just wish there was more “family entertainment” that didn’t involve home construction or celebrity dancing.

Same with Boston Legal. The HR department for that law firm is either comatose or blew their collective brains out at the goings on in that place.

10

Clothes being ripped off approximately ever 10 minutes, sexual innuendo and double entendres, trysts in elevators, laundry rooms, kitchens, bathrooms, etc. I try to imagine how I would have felt as a teen watching one of these shows with my parents and think, “No way in hell would I stay in the room with my folks watching some woman fantasize about a three-way.” (That was from Grey’s Anatomy). My son is 15 and even he he thinks that it is too much.

11

I thought this was about the News show.

12

Sex sells, who knew? :smiley:

Post-soap-operafication primetime network TV is mindnumbingly unwatchable for this reason, among others.

…and they still keep cranking out the same old cop/lawyer/doctor shows like a bottle factory, to boot. Luckily, we have more choices nowdays and can simply ignore all that drivel, as I am blissfully doing.