So You Think You Can Rate a TV Show? Brought to you by the Parents Television Council WARNING: Graphic Content!!! Do NOT push play if you don't want to see the explicit video!!!

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Las Vegas on NBC

Rating: TV-14 LVD

By Caroline Schulenburg

Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of watching the NBC drama Las Vegas would probably agree that it isn’t the scintillating plots or the brilliant acting that keeps fans coming back so much as a guaranteed flesh-fest every week. But the episode that aired November 30^th, 2007 delivered much more than the usual feast of perfectly toned abs and thighs -- without its rating being flagged with an S-descriptor indicating depictions of Sex.

Sam has been fired by Cooper and now has to find a new job in Las Vegas. This would be easy for her but for the fact that Cooper has called every casino and requested that they not hire her. Soon, Sam finds herself working as a hostess at a strip club called Shooters. Sam is trying to come to terms with her new situation when her friend Nick from the Montecito comes to visit her one night. Sam is watching a terrible imitation of an ‘80s hair band perform a ballad called “Stripper Girl”: “Your lips were red, your skin was pale…You were the one I wanted to nail…I asked you for a table dance, you came over, put your hand down my pants…” croons the singer as he pushes his hand down his own pants. Meanwhile, strippers dance in cages all over the club. Nick looks over at two men yelling “50 Gs on Pink!” “50 Gs on Brown!” Nick asks them what they are betting on. “Her nipples!”  they answer gleefully. The stripper then whips off her top and provides America with a side view of her breasts as she continues to dance.

Las Vegas is by no means a family-friendly show -- though NBC apparently thinks it is appropriate for 14-year-olds.  But refusing to use an S-descriptor in a program focusing on strippers and bare breasts demonstrates that the networks are either incompetent or willfully negligent when it comes to rating their own programs. Imagining that they can get away with broadcasting such inappropriate content without rating it accurately is simply reprehensible.

If you agree that this program was inadequately rated, please write to the TV ratings advisory board at tvomb@usa.net and let them know that the TV ratings once again failed to adequately warn parents about inappropriate content.    

For more information about the TV ratings, please visit http://www.tvguidelines.org/contact.asp. 

► TAKE ACTION! Register your complaint with NBC, its affiliates, and the sponsors who paid for the November 30th episode of Las Vegas.

► TAKE ACTION! If you live in the Central or Mountain time zones, file a formal complaint with the FCC.