PTC Names First-to-Worst of Kids’ Primetime Favorites

ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Gets Top Rating; Fox's Family Guy Gets Bottom Rating

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 10/29/2007 3:59:00 PM

The Parents Television Council released its annual rating of the suitability for children of the top-20 TV-network shows watched by kids 2-17, ranked from first to worst.

First, for the second year in a row, went to ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, followed by NBC’s Sunday Night Football. In fact, all of the eight shows that got "green lights" as OK for kids were unscripted, with six of the seven shows given “red lights” for unsuitable scripted shows.

Worst went to Fox's Family Guy, followed by one of its companion Sunday-night animated shows, American Dad.

Fox tied with NBC for the most green-lighted shows with three, and it had the most red-lighted, as well, also with three.

The PTC -- which has been a driving force behind content complaints to the Federal Communications Commission that resulted in fines against CBS for the Super Bowl and Without a Trace, and behind the crackdown on language -- does a content analysis of the top 20 network-TV primetime shows with kids (according to Nielsen Media Research) based on "explicitness of foul language, sexual content and violence present" and taking into account "time slot, target audience, themes and plot lines."

The seven shows given a green light for suitability for children were, in order: Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Sunday Night Football, NBC's Deal or No Deal, Fox's Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, NBC's The Singing Bee, Fox's Don't Forget the Lyrics, Fox’s American Idol and ABC's Supernanny.

Shows getting yellow caution lights (a "questionably suitable" designation) were ABC's America's Funniest Home Videos, ABC's Dancing with the Stars, Fox's So You Think You Can Dance, CBS' Amazing Race, CBS' Survivor and Fox’s The Simpsons.

Occupying the red-light district were Fox's House, ABC's Grey's Anatomy, NBC's Heroes, CBS' CSI, American Dad and Family Guy.