The Parents Television Council has a new study of broadcast television looking at the major networks. Their findings comparing a five year period finds that, across all networks, use of profanity on prime-time broadcast entertainment programming increased 69.3 percent from 2005 to 2010.
Making this news even worse, the largest increases were found in the use of the harshest profanities, and in explicit references to genitalia and bodily functions. The largest increase occurred in the 8:00 p.m – 9:00 p.m. time slot once called the “Family Hour.”
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Across all networks and prime time hours, use of the bleeped or muted f-word increased from 11 instances total in 2005 to 276 instances in 2010 – an increase of 2,409 percent.
Across all networks, use of the bleeped f-word in the Family Hour increased from 10 instances in 2005 to 111 instances in 2010 – an increase of 1,010 percent.
Across all networks and prime time hours, use of the bleeped or muted s-word increased from 11 instances in 2005 to 95 instances in 2010 – an increase of 763 percent. (This does not include CBS using a bleeped s-word in the title of its sitcom $#*! My Dad Says – or NBC’s use of a scripted, unbleeped s-word on the September 23rd episode of 30 Rock.)
The Fox broadcast network showed the greatest per-hour increase in use of profanity from 2005 to 2010, with an increase in all profanity across all prime-time hours of 269 percent.