Sears Joins Boycott of ABC Series

Sears said Tuesday that the company will no longer advertise on the ABC series “Nothing Sacred,” joining at least seven other companies, including Red Lobster restaurants and American Isuzu Motors, in distancing themselves from the 3-week-old show. The series features a young, inner-city priest struggling with parishioners’ problems and his own faith.

ABC spokeswoman Anne Riccitelli said the network expects the show to be fully sponsored throughout its run, albeit at ad rates that according to Advertising Age are among the lowest for a network prime-time show: as little as $55,000 per half-minute, compared with more than $500,000 for top-rated shows such as NBC’s “Seinfeld” and “ER.”

The lower ad rates may have less to do with the controversy than with the fact that “Sacred” runs against NBC’s highly rated “Friends.” ABC’s initial commitment for the 20th Century Fox-produced show is 13 episodes.

A call to boycott the show’s sponsors has been spearheaded by the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, a conservative watchdog group that says it defends “slanderous assaults” against the church in the media. On its Web site (https://www.catholicleague.org), the organization--which says it has 350,000 members--lists the show’s advertisers and provides a protest form letter to be sent to ABC and/or Walt Disney Co. Chairman Michael Eisner. Disney is ABC’s corporate parent.

Other prominent Catholic voices in the media say the Catholic League does not represent their views.

“I’ve seen both episodes that have been aired. . . . I don’t think the series is perfect, but I think it’s really attempting to invite people into the wrestling match with God,” said Father Ellwood Keiser, a priest whose Paulist Productions produced the 1989 feature film “Romero.”

“[The Catholic League] certainly doesn’t speak for all 60 million American Catholics, and they certainly don’t speak for me,” he added.

A number of shows over the years have been the subject of protests by conservative and religious groups. Producer Norman Lear’s CBS shows “All in the Family” and “Maude” were frequent targets. ABC’s racy “Soap” was denounced by the National Council of Churches and received more than 30,000 letters of protest, but went on to run for four seasons from 1977 to 1981.

A Disney spokesperson referred any calls for comment to ABC.

Other advertisers, including Visa, say they currently have no plans to pull ads from the show. Visa spokesman Kelly Pressa said the company had received “maybe a dozen or two calls” from consumers expressing concern.