The UNSUB: CBS, murdering women role models

[snowdarkred]

As I said in this post, CBS, as well as canceling two hit dramas head by women - Ghost Whisperer and Cold Case - and raising Charlie Sheen's (yes, domestic violence Charlie Sheen) paycheck, is casting aside long-time cast member AJ Cook and significantly reducing the episode number of co-star Paget Brewster. That is, the only full time female cast member who will be left will be Kirsten Vangsness. The network announced that a new female character will be introduced - because it's obvious that female characters are easily interchangeable - and AJ Cook will be given one episode in which to rap up her five-year stint on the show.

One episode. After five seasons, she will have ONE EPISODE to give us a 'believable' reason for JJ to run off into the sunset? And you just know that she's going to get shot or something. Because CBS is full of dicks like that.

CBS is the same network that runs NCIS, a show that has its own host of feminism problems - any issues that you (and most definitely I) have with Ziva David aside. The NCIS track record: Kate was shot by Ari, Jenny was murdered, Michelle turned out to be a traitor, the Jeanne fiasco, and the entire Ziva plot line.... Ahem. Yeah, good job there.

And then there's the mess that it CSI, but that's so expansive and convoluted that I don't think I can do it justice without either boring myself to death or getting very, very angry. And you won't like me when I'm angry.

What is with television these days? What happened? It seemed like we were heading in the right direction, but then all this happens?

You know what, FUCK YOU, CBS. Assholes. Give us back our strong, awesome, competent, non-crazy, kick-ass, mature, intelligent, amazing role-models!

A pic I put together to support AJ Cook and Paget Brewster:

Sign the petition here. (It has 37,297 signatures as I am posting this right now. 37,297!!)
Leave hatemail comments to CBS here.
See the media backlash here.
See the fan backlash here.

ETA: FIVE MINUTES LATER!!! - 37,315!
ETA: 10:19PM - 37,641 signatures!!!
ETA:  41,051!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

[rengeek.livejournal.com]

Wow, I thought Ghost Whisperer got canceled like... 5 years ago...

What was AJ's reaction to this development? This could have been her own personal decision to leave or the studios had a reason other than LOLWOMAN. It could be a vasty coincidence that people just don't watch those shows anymore and the ratings deem cancellation or maybe the writers quit or maybe even the actresses...
Anyways, they did say another actress is coming in to fill the vacancy. And we don't know who and how they'll do. They might make the show even more popular!

I hate the one episode send off because they never do it right, male or female, but if the actress got fired or quit the show, its the best the writers can do with the circumstances.

You're the first woman I've ever met who has negative feelings towards NCIS. I don't watch the show so I don't know what's going on, but I know a lot of girls, even the feminist ones, who adore Tony/Ziva....

There's still plenty of television out there though with good solid female leads.

nice icon, batman! :D - long comment is long

[snowdarkred.livejournal.com]

Actually, from what I heard, Ghost Whisperer was doing terribly bad. It still has an avid fanbase and a regular viewership.I think the real issue is that CBS also cut Cold Case, The New Adventures of Old Christin, and Accidentally on Purpose as well, and all of those shows are headed by female characters. Mass actions like that always make people raise eyebrows.

AJ has been mostly silent, actually. She tweeted a thank you to her fans and coworkers for their support, and that was basically it. Her costars, however, have been a bit up in arms on their twitter accounts - they all retweeted the petition to get her job back, as well as signing it, and they've made various statements about being confused and 'befuddled'. From what the studio is saying, it wasn't AJ's choice to leave; it was a decision made by someone in the network.

The problem with adding a new actress a bit interesting. If they kept all the current members as they are now and added a new female, people would be doubtful, but willing to give her a shot. But the fans don't want a new character, they want JJ. And they want Prentiss full time instead of every other episode.

The issue with cutting down on Prentiss and getting rid of JJ is, who will go out into the field? Criminal Minds has four male agents, all of whom go out into the field. Prentiss is the main female field agent, though JJ has been known to strap on her gun at times. Garcia is awesome, but she's not a profiler or a field agent; she's a tech. CM has a lot of women victims - understandable, since most crimes are committed against women and children - and a strong female presence on a crime scene is an excellent balance. I'm not saying that the boys don't do a good job of being compassionate; it's just nice to see competent women working to stop these crimes. Even if the new cast member is a full time agent, Paget Brewster's episode cut will mean a reduced female presence on a case.

I don't think CBS planned this very well. Even if it wasn't inherently sexist - if all of this was a whoops accident - they didn't do research on their fanbase very well. Yes, a lot of women watch for the men, but that doesn't mean we don't appreciate the women. I've only come across one hater in the fandom who absolutely hated one of the women on the show. The fan response so far has been massively pro-AJ/JJ and Paget/Emily. People are seriously upset, not only because of the gender issue, but because we like things the way they are. The show draws a regular, solid audience, it's regularly in either the one or the two spot in the ratings, it's syndicated on two other networks, it sells merchandise, it has critical acclaim – and some of that acclaim has to do with its balanced cast. But then they introduced a subpar spin-off and fired one actress while cutting back on another one. Both characters are fan favorites.

After looking over article after article, I can't see a real reason behind it. There might be one, somewhere, but CBS isn't telling. At first it was 'financial cut back', then it was a 'new creative direction'. Most of the fan's reaction is: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Because this is the sort of thing the network has pulled again and again on CSI.

They only gave her one episode after the fans started sending stuff to their offices. :/ I don't know how they were planning on making it even half-way believable before.

I've met some others who feel the same way about NCIS as I do. I get that both Hollywood and the military typically male-driven, but some of the plot lines and the way they get new characters makes me go :/ very much. I don't really like Ziva, and I wish that there was another long-running female field agent who doesn't die. She doesn't even have to be on the team, just guest star a la Paula Cassidy. (They may have fixed this, though I haven't heard of it; the last I watched was the first episode of S7.) I love Abby, but.... Maybe I wish for too much.

There's still plenty of television out there though with good solid female leads.
I know, it's just very hard to deal with when it seems to be happening everywhere at once. And it's hard when you have a favorite show and something like this happens. :/