Mtv Confines Gay Dating Show To 11 P.M.

MTV is pre-empting today’s 7 p.m. airing of a gay edition of the game show “Singled Out” because the content is “too mature.” The controversial show will still be seen at 11 tonight, as scheduled.

“Singled Out” is MTV’s take on the classic “Dating Game” series and usually features dozens of men and women in search of a heterosexual date. A few months ago, producers taped a same-sex edition, pairing men and men, women and women.

MTV spokeswoman Tina Exarhos said Wednesday that after viewing the segment, MTV’s standards department thought it was much too strong for the early time period.

“We felt it belonged in a later time slot,” Exarhos said.

She denied a claim by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation that MTV was bowing to pressure from its parent, Viacom.

“The decision had nothing to do with outside pressure,” said Exarhos. “It was a programming and standards decision.”

TNT top night cable network

Despite a 13 percent drop in its ratings performance compared to a year ago, Turner Broadcasting’s TNT was the top cable network in prime time for the second quarter of the year, according to Nielsen ratings.

Armed with the three highestrated programs of the quarter - all NBA playoff telecasts TNT took the top spot with an average of over 1.4 million TV homes tuned in.

Sister service TBS tied the USA Network for second place in prime time, with nearly 1.3 million homes. TBS was flat year to year, while USA dropped 14 percent from last year.

The top three networks were followed in order by Nick at Nite (up 6 percent), ESPN (up 15 percent), Lifetime (flat), A&E (up 30 percent) The Cartoon Network (down 20 percent), Discovery (flat) and The Family Channel (up 38 percent).

Based on total day statistics, Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite was No.1 (up 7 percent from the same period a year ago), followed by TBS (flat), TNT (down 9 percent), USA (down 10 percent) and The Cartoon Network (down 20 percent).