Straddling The Fence ‘Ellen’ And ‘Sacred’ Are Causing Trouble Across The Political Spectrum For Abc Network

It’s the trifecta no network would wish for: angry conservative Catholics, ticked-off liberal viewers, and eroding viewership. But ABC has pulled it off.

The network, which opened its season with a cheeky ad campaign that suggested TV was bad, and that was OK, has got trouble on both ends of the political spectrum.

First, there’s “Ellen.” As in Ellen DeGeneres, the very out lesbian star who’s turning into a latter-day Roseanne with her threats to quit her self-titled sitcom. DeGeneres made noise about leaving at the end of last season, but ABC convinced her to stay.

Now “Ellen” is an even bigger hit (it was the 15th-most-watched show last week, and the eighth-most-watched among those coveted 18- to 49-year-olds), and she’s at it again. DeGeneres is disturbed that the network slapped last Wednesday’s episode with a TV-14 rating for “adult content” and preceded the episode with a voiceover that urged parents to use discretion in allowing children to watch. The show contained a kiss - which was either “lighthearted” or “long,” depending on who was doing the describing - between Ellen and her heterosexual female friend Paige (Joely Fisher).

Straight couples kiss on TV all the time, said DeGeneres, and nobody warns parents. “This advisor is telling kids something’s wrong with being gay,” she told the New York Times. “It’s like if they had a black show and put on a warning that said this show isn’t suitable for viewers who don’t like black people.”

ABC says it’s just trying to do right in handling a sensitive subject. “It’s the network’s responsibility to provide information to parents who want to make a more informed choice,” said network spokeswoman Anne Marie Riccitelli. But gay fans of the show say they’re puzzled.

The network is “trying to walk a line that’s not walkable,” said Chastity Bono, entertainment media director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. “For the people who are upset about “Ellen” being on the air, an advisory’s not going to please them. You could have Ellen in a field picking flowers every week and people would still be upset. … It’s kind of frustrating, because ABC has always been so progressive on this issue in the past. I do think they’re creating a double standard.”

Sources close to the story say that DeGeneres would be a fool to leave the series, which premiered in March 1994. Once the show has 100 episodes in the can, it can be sold in syndication. The network makes money, DeGeneres makes money, and, presumably, everybody’s happy.

So, OK, maybe the network can breathe easy there. But the battle’s far from over concerning “Nothing Sacred,” the critically acclaimed drama about Father Ray, a renegade Catholic priest played by Kevin Anderson. Call that Brouhaha No. 2.

The series’ liberal slant has led the 300,000-member Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights to stage a boycott of all companies who support the show with commercial time and has caused advertiser after advertiser to decide that their bucks might be better spent elsewhere.

The show has taken on the issues of abortion, feminism and priests’ celibacy, and has tempers running high. William Donohue, head of the Catholic League, calls it “pure propaganda for Catholic malcontents and those who have an animus against Catholicism.” Companies from Weight Watchers to Red Lobster have fled, leaving last week’s episode looking like the “Gold Bond Medicated Foot Powder Hall of Fame.”

Meanwhile, the ratings have stayed low. “Sacred” airs in the Time Slot of the Damned - 8 p.m. Thursdays, against NBC’s “Friends” and “Union Square” - and last week ranked 82nd among total viewers, 88th among the 18-to-49s.

ABC spinmeisters have gone on the offensive, gathering quotes from prominent Catholics and Catholic groups who think the drama’s just fine. One sample: The Los Angeles Archdiocese says that “Sacred” “offers a rare chance for Catholics and non-Catholics to see issues (of poverty, service, commitment, sexuality, authority, feminism and belief) explored in a unique context.” And next week’s TV Guide features a discussion between three parish pastors who give the show mostly high marks for fairness, and for Anderson’s portrayal of Father Ray. Viewers for Quality Television has also taken up “Sacred’s” cause.

So that leaves Problem No. 3, the numbers. The Big Three have all lost viewers - they’re each down about 1 million people since this time last year - but ABC has experienced the most precipitous decline, losing 1.17 million. Network analysts cite a variety of factors. (Guess we couldn’t expect them to say, “All our new shows stink.”) For one thing, it’s too early to get a true reading: The season is really only two weeks old. For another, the baseball playoffs are drawing non-enthusiasts over to Fox. (That net has gained about 930,000 viewers, making it the lone success story.) And finally, there’s cable, and people opting away from the major networks in favor of, say, the Sci-Fi channel.

ABC folks are quick to point out that “Dharma & Greg” is doing well (28th overall, 19th among younger folks), and that last Sunday’s “Wonderful World of Disney” held its own.