Sunday, November 20, 2005
The popularity of 'CSI' has helped influence the trend.
NEW YORK (AP) -- The body count in prime-time television these days rivals that of a war zone.
The popularity of CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," its spinoffs, imitators and other crime or supernatural shows has made network TV home to an astonishing amount of blood 'n' guts, which has attracted little notice because of a preoccupation with sex.
During the last week of September, there were 63 corpses visible during prime time on the six broadcast networks. That's up sharply from the 27 bodies counted during the same week in 2004.
In one week
This year, channel surfers in that one week could spot:
* The lead character in Fox's "Bones" discovering a badly decomposed body hanging in a tree, crows picking on the remains. The maggot-covered head falls off and lands in Bones' hands.
* A man preparing dinner on the WB's "Supernatural" when his sink suddenly fills with water. He reaches in and something grabs him, pulls his head in the water and drowns him.
* On CBS' "CSI: NY," a man falling after trying to climb the outside of a skyscraper. He hits a ledge, and a large chunk of bloody flesh falls to the street.
* A driver speeding up to hit a woman coming out of the clinic on NBC's "Inconceivable." She's shown hitting the windshield, flying through the air and lying on the ground with blood dripping from her mouth and nose.
* The victim of an autoerotic asphyxiation on CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation."
Then there's the gunshot victim with blood spurting from his chest, the man screaming as he's being burned alive, the murdered woman whose eyes had been removed and eyelids stitched shut and the medical examiner using pliers to pull a diamond from a dead man's chest.
You get the idea.
Making heads jerk
"The whole name of the game in television is holding attention," said Martin Kaplan, professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. "Ever since we were creatures on the savanna, fear, sex and novelty were things that made our heads jerk."
The reign of "CSI" as television's most popular show is clearly the leading factor in the trend. CBS, in particular, keeps putting new crime-oriented dramas on the air, and the public keeps lapping them up.
"I think one of the drawing cards of 'CSI' is that it is depicted very real and sort of gross," said David Janollari, WB entertainment president. "It's part of why the audience comes to see it."
Television must compete for attention with movies, where the effects can be even more graphic, he said.
"Gore is not a goal in and of itself," said Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president. "Accurate storytelling is. When you look at a show like 'Bones,' Bones is a real-life forensic psychologist. This is what she sees on a daily basis when she's called in to solve a case."
Liguori, who has children aged 11 and 14, said he knows "CSI" is not appropriate for most kids. But he said it's up to parents to monitor and decide what their children should watch.
"All of the media executives are going to pay a lot more attention to what's making them money," said David Walsh, head of the National Institute on Media and the Family. "Their job performance is not going to include 'What do parents think of what you're doing?' Their job performance is going to be based on 'How much money did you make?'"
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