With Brothers & Sisters' Kevin Walker, Scotty Wandell and Saul Holden and Ugly Betty's Marc St. James, US broadcast television will have 16 regular LGBT characters in prime-time series this fall - the highest tally in 13 years of monitoring by a US gay media watchdog.
Top of page: Kevin (Matthew Rhys) and Scotty (Luke Macfarlane) make a commitment to be life partners in Brothers & Sisters in last season's finale. Above: Grey's Anatomy's Dr Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez) and Dr Erica Hahn (Brooke Smith) became the only regular lesbian/bisexual female characters on network television, Michael Urie stars as Marc St James in Ugly Betty and gay couple Bob (Tuc Watkins) and Lee (Kevin Rahm) in Desperate Housewives.
GLAAD examined 88 scripted comedies and dramas announced to air this upcoming season, and counted a total of 616 lead and supporting characters, 16 of which are LGBT - more than twice the number of characters, seven, announced at the launch of the 2007-2008 season.
The 13th annual "Where We Are On TV" report shows that LGBT representations will account for 2.6% of all scripted series regular characters on the 2008-2009 broadcast television schedule, up from 1.4% in 2005, 1.3% in 2006, and 1.1% in 2007. In contrast, the number of LGBT series regular characters found on scripted programming on mainstream cable networks has decreased since last year's analysis, from 40 to 32.
The media watchdog said in a media statement that it is a positive sign of networks making their shows more representative, although more work needed to be done.
The report singled out Fox for having five LGBT characters out of 97 total series regular characters for 2008-2009 from having none last season. The character Thirteen on House is bisexual, while the new Do Not Disturb has a gay man.
"CBS has the most disappointing showing, with not a single LGBT series regular character out of 126, and only one recurring character in the entire series lineup [Brad on Rules of Engagement is gay]. Additionally, The CW's lack of scripted representation is now merely a close second to CBS, as the network has only one scripted series regular LGBT character [Marco Giordani on Privileged)." The statement read.
ABC will have seven characters that are either gay men or bisexual women this fall, NBC will have three and the CW will have one, according to GLAAD.
Nineteen recurring LGBT characters - those who appear in a few episodes - have been counted compared to 13 a year ago. The number is the highest GLAAD has counted during its 13 years of monitoring networks for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender representation.
There are no lesbians among the regular characters although GLAAD counted five bisexual women, including the characters of Callie Torres and Erica Hahn on ABC's Grey's Anatomy. There are also no bisexual male characters except Roger the Alien in Fox's satirical animated series American Dad! Fox had later confirmed that the character is in fact "omnisexual."
"As the networks gradually add characters from all backgrounds and all walks of life to prime-time programming, more and more Americans are seeing their LGBT friends and neighbours reflected on the small screen," Giuliano said.
Non-American viewers would benefit too if local censors are less snip-happy.
For a list of LGBT characters in the 2008/9 season, click on the Where We Are On TV: 2008-2009 Season report link below.