UPN Goes Without Standards Executive

Of the six major broadcast networks, only UPN does not have a standards and practices executive, an in-house gatekeeper whose sole job is to monitor content, identify areas that could be objectionable and work to modify them before air date. While such positions are not mandated by the Federal Communications Commission, ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox and the WB all have such executives on staff.

UPN, which began broadcasting in January 1995, relies on Chief Operating Officer Adam Ware and Chief Financial Officer David England to serve as the network’s filtering system, according to UPN’s President and Chief Executive Officer Dean Valentine.

At a time of heightened scrutiny of the media, failing to have a standards and practices executive sends a message to viewers and legislators, said Dan Gerstein, a spokesman for Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.), an outspoken critic of Hollywood. “It makes a statement about their priorities,” Gerstein said. “It’s disappointing.”

Valentine said a full-time arbiter wasn’t necessary. Ware and England are “responsible to the network, and it’s their job to use common sense and red-flag anything that needs to be,” Valentine said. “We don’t mistake ourselves for the Christian Broadcast Network,” he added. “There’s clearly a lot of fluidity in what constitutes broadcast standards, and it always comes down to a question of judgment and taste. We’re very comfortable with what’s on our air.”

*

Though a look across all networks during prime time reveals enough sexually active teens, realistic violence and adult situations to suggest that no one is monitoring such taste issues, without a formal self-policing executive, scenes aired on UPN probably would not have passed muster at other networks, sources say. Those have included profanity and anti-gay slogans on signs in the audience during “WWF Smackdown!,” along with some barely dressed female wrestlers, and a scene this season in which one female character pushed another’s head into a bucket of filth.

UPN’s clay-animated half-hour series “Gary & Mike” has featured a character having sex with his underage stepsister; a cadaver that was passed, body-surfing style, through a concert crowd; and implied scenes of masturbation and oral sex. Those episodes aired this spring, and the show could return to UPN’s schedule next year. NBC passed on the show when it was shopped there.

Requests to change content at UPN are “very minimal” compared to his other network experience, said Fax Bahr, executive producer of “Gary & Mike,” who wrote for the comedy-variety show “In Living Color” and co-created the late-night comedy series “Mad TV,” both on Fox. At the same time, “we’ve never put in anything outrageous just to see if we could get away with it,” he said.

Lieberman and other senators have said networks are breaching the public trust by airing sexually explicit and violent programming and have asked the FCC to closely consider what’s on the schedules when renewing broadcast license agreements. “It would be ideal to have an industrywide standard for content, but at the very minimum, we ask that each network have standards they adhere to,” Gerstein said, “particularly at times when children comprise much of the audience.”

UPN’s “Smackdown!” is often at the top of the ratings with teenage males on Thursday nights and has a strong kid following. The show comes prepackaged from World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, and according to the WWF, UPN is not involved in the creative content of the show. However, WWF does have its own standards and practices executive reviewing the show. As significantly, UPN insiders say the network is not hearing complaints from advertisers or affiliates. (Coca-Cola, AT&T;, Mars and other blue-chip advertisers pulled out of “Smackdown!” in late ’99 when the show was rated TV-14. Those spots have since been filled by other advertisers, and the show was tweaked enough to earn a TV-PG rating.)

*

Advertisers who buy time during shows like “Smackdown!” and some of the other male-targeted fare are more concerned with reaching that audience than with the environment surrounding their ads, said Paul Schulman, president of the New York office of media-buying firm Advanswers PHD.

“They know it’s a highly rated show, and that’s what they care about,” he said. Ads during those shows are largely Hollywood studios looking to open a movie, video game makers, soda companies and fast-food chains.

Standards divisions at the major broadcast networks have been in place for decades, overseeing the content of prime-time shows, daytime, commercials and on-air promotional spots. There’s no doubt, they say, that the boundaries of what’s considered acceptable have changed from the days when “Moonlighting” and “Saturday Night Live” were groundbreakers.

“The line has stretched and retracted, sometimes because of a current political climate,” said Roland McFarland, vice president of broadcast standards and practices at Fox. “The country is still very sensitive to sexual situations and language.”

The best gauge of what’s over the line is the audience, say standards executives, who keep track of letters, calls and e-mails. Affiliates also let the networks know when viewers in their markets are offended, as do advertisers, who can and have dropped out of shows altogether or asked that their ads be moved to less intense scenes.

The increased popularity and reach of cable, particularly premium channels such as HBO and Showtime, have caused a shift in audience tastes and networks’ parameters. At the same time, the creative community has tried to push further.

“Drama producers want to use [HBO’s] ‘The Sopranos’ as a model, and comedy producers want to use ‘Sex and the City,’ ” said Alan Wurtzel, NBC’s president of research and broadcast standards and practices. “We can’t do that. We’re not catering to a niche; we have to be mindful of the millions of people we reach.”

Indeed, executives at the other networks were stunned to find that UPN did not have a standards and practices executive.

As one network executive put it: “There has to be a system of checks and balances, and this is a check with no balance.”