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But who is really to blame? Sure, an average person can blame the networks for airing such tasteless programs, but does the American public really want such shows taken off the air? As stated by USA Today, in their article Prime Time Top 10 Television Shows for March 18-24, 2002, ten of the top twenty have sexual and violent suggestion in the majority of their broadcasts. Six of the top twenty television shows revolve around murder and other crimes. These shows include, Law and Order (rated at number 8 and again at number 13), ER (rated at number 10), and NYPD Blue (rated at number 20), all of which are for the most part crime oriented (USA Today). The others were either one time broadcasted shows, such as certain award programs or sporting events; therefore do not totally affect the younger viewing public as much. Each rating point that a television show receives represents 1,022,000 households and is a percentage of the nation's estimated 102.2 million TV homes. This seems to stand on its own and prove that the American public enjoys viewing the more violent or less moral television shows. .
In relation to this, the American Psychological Association (ASA) Help Center, shows that studies have been performed by George Gerbner, Ph. D., at the University of Pennsylvania, that show that children's television programming has on average 20 violent acts per hour, while surprisingly prime time programming averages just 8 an hour. In one of these studies, one hundred preschool age children were taken and had their actions observed both before and after watching certain television shows. Some children watched cartoons with some suggestions to violence and the others viewed a non-violent type of cartoon. The studies revealed that the children that had observed the programs with violent content acted in a different way compared to those children who watched the less violent content.
