'Playboy Club' Canceled; Parents Television Council Celebrates
Following the massive wave of controversy from various groups regarding television show “Playboy Club,” NBC has now decided to give in and officially cancel the drama series.
“Playboy Club,” is a series about a string of nightclubs owned by Hugh Hefner, featured scantily clad women donning the organization’s famous bunny ears. The show tried to cash in on the success of “Mad Men,” by having a 60’s theme.
In its premiere episode, ratings for the show performed way below NBC’s expectation. Monday’s episode managed to garner just 3.4 million viewers.
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Before the series premiered, “Playboy Club” received criticism from The Parents Television Council and Morality in the Media among others. In particular, groups complained about the “pornography” featured in the series.
Morality in the Media even sent letters to NBC affiliates asking them not to air the show. An NBC affiliate in Salt Lake City was the only one to oblige to the boycott.
Dawn Hawkins of Morality in the Media released a statement on the cancellation:
"It is great news that the 'Playboy Club' is canceled after just three episodes. Clearly viewers are not interested in supporting the brand that normalized pornography and caused immeasurable harm to women, children and to the men who became addicted to porn.”
According to Hawkins, the key to the cancellation was that NBC advertisers backed out of the show after her group personally received 20,000 emails of support for the boycott.
The Parents Television Council is equally delighted that the “Playboy Club” is coming to an end. The council released a statement saying:
“Bringing The Playboy Club to broadcast television was a poor programming decision from the start. We’re pleased that NBC will no longer be airing a program so inherently linked to a pornographic brand that denigrates and sexualizes women. We hope other broadcasters heed the important lessons of this programming debacle.”
However, there are some who are not happy over the cancellation of the series. The end of course has saddened Playboy owner Hugh Hefner, around whom the series revolved.
Hefner fired off a series of tweets on Tuesday about his disappointment: “I’m sorry NBC’s ‘The Playboy Club’ didn’t find its audience. It should have been on cable, aimed at a more adult audience.”
He added, “At the same time, there is renewed studio interest in a major motion picture on my life & the start of the Sexual Revolution.”
With the “Playboy Club” off the airwaves, NBC has announced that repeat episodes of “Prime Suspect” will be replacing the series until news program “Rock Center” premieres later this month.
