Over the years, the American public has heard repeatedly from TV executives, lobbyists, and lawyers that indecency laws are unnecessary, and that they aren’t going to start creating and disseminating more inappropriate content just because they can.
But one series that originated on broadcast TV and was subsequently picked up by Netflix provides a stark example of what we might see happen on broadcast TV in the absence of decency laws.
Designated Survivor was originally developed for ABC for the 2017-18 television season. Its intriguing premise was rooted in the continuity-of-government plan put in place during the Cold War. The designated survivor is an individual in the presidential line of succession who is to be kept at a secure, undisclosed location during major events such as inaugurations or the State of the Union address — events where the president and vice president, and most of the immediate successors would be present.
In the series premiere, the worst happens — a catastrophic event claims the lives of nearly the entire line of presidential succession during the State of the Union. This leaves Tom Kirkman, a low-ranking cabinet member, to rebuild the government from the ground up while also working to uncover who was behind the deadly plot.
Kiefer Sutherland returns to TV in his first role since Jack Bauer on Fox’s 24 as the scrupulously honest, idealistic, and politically naïve Kirkman. Beyond the catchy premise, the writers don’t seem to have given much thought to where they wanted the story to go. At times, Designated Survivor seems to want to be The West Wing part II, at others it seems to want to be more like 24.
But it is interesting to watch what happened to the age-based ratings on this series from season to season. The first two seasons aired on ABC. Most first season episodes were rated TV-PG; a handful of episodes with higher levels of violence were rated TV-14. The second season flipped that: most episodes were rated TV-14, with just a few getting the less restrictive PG-rating.
After the second season, ABC dropped the series, and Netflix picked it up. You can probably guess what happened next. Every episode of the series’ third season, distributed exclusively by Netflix, was rated TV-MA.
And that MA-rating is definitely warranted. To choose just one example, according to streaming video filtering service VidAngel, in the first 10 episodes of Season 3, the F-word was used 67 times. It was not used at all in the first two seasons. The same is true for the word shit, depictions of nudity, and other sexual situations; none of which writers had deemed necessary to carry the plot forward when the series had been airing on ABC.
Was there market research that said viewers who had no interest in the series when it aired on ABC as a PG or even TV-14 series would definitely watch if writers added TV-MA content? Doubtful. So what made the difference? They did it because they could. On Netflix, there are no content restrictions. Decency laws don’t apply. Advertisers have no influence.
If you were ever in any doubt that the broadcast decency laws are the only thing keeping the TV industry in check, Designated Survivor is all the proof you need.
Melissa Henson is the program director of the Parents Television Council, a nonpartisan education organization advocating responsible entertainment (www.ParentsTV.org).
