The Parents Television Council, which promotes its idea of family-friendly TV fare, has come out with its best and worst list of new broadcast shows, or shows it says are "safe for families" versus those that aren't.
On the "best" list, created after attending the Paley Center for Media's Fall TV Previews, was CBS' Supergirl, which it calls a "delightfully cheerful and upbeat superhero series" that is "perfect" for families.
Fox gets on the list as well with The Grinder, the new Rob Lowe comedy, which Lowe was plugging during Fox's NFL post-game show on the Emmy red carpet Sunday.
PTC said the show combined "sharp satire" of legal dramas with a "warm" family comedy. "[U]nder the satire of TV," says PTC, "The Grinder is a story of two brothers reconnecting, and learning to support and care about one another."
Rounding out the top three—they were not ranked in any order, though PTC does say it thinks Supergirl is the best of the best—is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend on The CW, which PTC calls a "sweet, funny, romantic musical comedy" with upbeat tone and delightful satire. PTC saw some potential red flags in some language and suggested sexual situations in the first episode, so said there could be issues down the road.
CBS and Fox also accounted for PTC's bottom three: Scream Queens (Fox), Life in Pieces (CBS) and Angel from Hell (also CBS).
PTC cited Scream Queens for "graphic gore, sexual dialogue, and a deeply disturbing tone" it said was more suited to pay cable. Life in Pieces gets the hook for "wall-to-wall sex and scatological humor." Angel from Hell appears to suffer because it features Jane Lynch, who is clearly not on PTC's Holiday Card list. "Actress Jane Lynch (Sue Sylvester on Glee) brings her patented obnoxious bully shtick to her new role…as an angel," says the group, branding it a "crude" and "insulting" comedy.
Penning the PTC list was Christopher Gildemeister, who also writes its weekly best and worst TV shows columns.
