Parents Television Council calls for The Playboy Club to be cancelled

The Parents Television Council is calling for NBC drama The Playboy Club to be cancelled.

{jcomments on}The PTC, or the Parents Television Council to use its full name, is calling on NBC to cancel The Playboy Club with immediate effect. Though if anything is likely to convince NBC to wield the axe on the series it will be its low ratings and not the PTC’s rallying call. The Playboy Club debuted on NBC on the 19th September with just 5 million viewers and its second episode saw ratings drop even further.

With ratings that low the series is already facing cancellation without the PTC’s help. The organisation has been against the drama for some time calling it a “blatant attempt to obliterate any remaining standards of broadcast decency“. It also urged NBC affiliates to boycott the drama. Now it has gone one further – it wants the drama off the air completely.

Press Release:

The Parents Television Council® is calling for the immediate cancellation of “The Playboy Club” on NBC following the second episode in the new season, which drew even more abysmal ratings than the premiere. PTC is also asking members to contact Capital One, Samsung, and keep the pressure on Chrysler until they cease sponsorship of a broadcast television program that is mainstreaming the pornography industry.

Before the first episode, PTC issued a letter to potential advertisers asking them not to support television programming that objectifies and degrades women. PTC then continued aggressive advertiser outreach efforts following the premiere. Seven of the sponsors featured in the first episode did not reappear in this week’s episode and communications have begun with those companies that sponsored the second episode.

“What has been clear to everyone outside of NBC must now be clear even to those inside NBC: ‘The Playboy Club’ is a commercial disaster and must be removed from the airwaves. We call for the network to cancel this degrading and sexualizing program immediately,” said PTC President Tim Winter.

“As a licensee of the public airwaves, NBC has breached the public trust by airing what amounts to a weekly advertisement for a pornographic brand. As demonstrated by the Nielsen ratings for ‘The Playboy Club’ the past two weeks, any further airing of the show not only pushes an anti-family agenda, but is a profoundly bad business decision.

“Until the program is removed from the public airwaves, PTC will be calling on its members and other concerned citizens to contact the sponsors. Today, we ask Capital One, Chrysler and Samsung if their corporate values are in step with those of the Playboy brand,” Winter concluded.

As you may well remember the PTC also took offence to MTV’s Skins – a remake of the British teen drama of the same name. The PTC were outraged by the dramas’ depiction of underage sex, drug taking and binge drinking and called for a federal enquiry into the series. More recently the PTC has taken issue with animated comedies such as Family Guy and American Dad. Once NBC axes The Playboy Club – which seems likely given its ratings – which series will the PTC turn its attention to next?

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