Image Credit: HBOTrue Blood is the most inclusive show on TV with six regular or recurring lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender characters, according to GLAAD’s annual “Where We Are on TV” study. HBO features the greatest number of LGBT characters on cable with a total of 10 for the 2010-11 season. ABC leads the broadcast networks with 11 LGBT characters out of 152 total series regular characters (7.2 percent). (CBS is in last place with just one regular.) ABC Family also finishes near the top of the scorecard with seven regular LGBT characters, which ties it with Showtime.
Check out the complete lists of LGBT characters on broadcast (a number that has increased to 3.9 percent, but still doesn’t include a black character — get on that, Glee) and on cable. For people who love charts, GLAAD breaks the numbers down further and includes stats on racial diversity on scripted broadcast series. NBC leads the way there with 32 percent of regular characters being people of color. ABC (26 percent), Fox (24 percent), CBS (18 percent), and The CW (10 percent) follow. For the first time, the study also looked at the number of characters with disabilities. According to GLAAD, slightly more than 12 percent of U.S. citizens reported an apparent disability in the US Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey. This season, only six series regular characters on the broadcast networks, or 1 percent, are people with disabilities.
On How I Met Your Mother, Wayne Brady plays Barney’s gay brother. Nice work as usual, GLAAD.
He’s showed up on the show twice. That hardly counts as a “regular.”
But it does count as recurring, a list from which he’s still omitted.
The GLAAD report, if you actually bothered to click through and read it, lists “Recurring Characters” and includes such time-hogging characters as Matt on The Office, whose had all of 3 lines, and characters on Glee who haven’t even been introduced yet! It’s clearly an omission on GLAAD’s part.
Two times in the space of 6 seasons hardly makes him a recurring guest star
Ok. Then explain why Sam Daly is on the list.
Also on recurring, they missed Steve Zahn’s neighbors on Treme.
Did we know Sam from Glee was gay?
I can’t come up with #6. Lafayette, Jesus, Pam, Russell, Talbot, and…
Oops, just saw that there was a link. Hadley and the Queen. I think that makes 7!
They said six in the article, so my guess is that they’d forgotten Hadley.
Sorry, saw the article but missed the list. They left off Talbot, which seems a pretty big omission.
Maybe they were counting Eric?
SO MANY CHARTS!
WHOA–did anyone else pull up the chart and notice that Chord Overstreet’s character Sam from Glee is listed as gay? That’s merely speculation to the rest of us, but does GLAAD know something we don’t?? If so, that’s a huge spoiler even if people already suspect it, so they might have been a little more careful letting that slip.
i watched it for the first time this summer (season 3) and thought that it was more gayer than Ugly Better! or Will & Grace for that matter, not that there’s anything wrong with it, i did enjoy it!
If Chord Overstreet’s Sam is gay, we’ve got a major Glee spoiler here. So much for the writers, producers, etc. trying to keep the “Who is Kurt’s BF?” mystery alive.
ok, although we’ve been hearing about this “Teddy is gay/90210″ storyline for months, so far the dude’s only had one hookup that we know of … does this make a “gay” character? shouldn’t we wait and see how the story plays out?
and seriously … Roger the Alien from American Dad counts as a bisexual character!??!
If they didn’t cancel As the World Turns they would’ve had three more gay men on CBS. F U, PTB.
They also leave out Scotty, Kevin’s parter on Brothers & Sisters and Uncle Saul.
Never mind! woops
Now all those ridiculous people who complained about the show’s “barrage of homosexuality” will cite this as proof. As they continue to watch and approve of the show’s violence, of course.
They also forgot about Oscar from the Office. I would say he is a supporting character.
No, he’s there under “Supporting Characters”.
Who cares????? Is there a chart for he percentage of black criminals in cop shows? 0%
Joyce on Mad Men!!!!!!