2016’s Notable TV Trends

The PTC's year-end wrap-up of notable trends on television. Most parents instinctively know that explicit TV programming can be harmful to their children. The trends of 2016 suggest an increasingly toxic entertainment landscape for families, with few exceptions. Here are several of our key findings from this past year:

• TV is worse than movies concerning sexualizing females
• Hollywood discovers showing extreme violence in a Biblical miniseries is a no-no
• TV Content Ratings System allows more adult content into TV shows
• PG-rated TV show about a family filled with sex and profanity
• Kids have access to watch explicit nude dating reality show since it’s rated TV-14
• The Walking Dead’s gruesome season premiere quickly outraged viewers and gave families another reason to wish for Cable Choice
• Child TV characters using explicit and sexualized language, and Disney’s ABC allows this to air most frequently
• Family friendly TV and movies continue to succeed (more here and here)

These trends are why the Parents Television Council will continue to fight for its mission to protect children from sex, violence, and profanity on TV in 2017 and beyond.