NBC Cancels The Playboy Club Amid Low Ratings and Political Pressure

NBC officially cancels their controversial television series, The Playboy Club, as ratings fell from a debut of 5 million viewers during the pilot episode, down to 3.4 million viewers. The real question is: what created this decline in ratings, and did outside pressure from feminists and religious and parents groups tip the scales with NBC’s ultimate decision to dump the series?

Just what is it about those rabbit ears and that fuzzy tale that gets people so up in arms? Does the Playboy Bunny outfit dehumanize women and turn them into quasi-animals? Does the campy Playboy Bunny getup turn women into playthings for mens’ collective amusement by reducing women to cute little bunny rabbits? Just what is going on in the minds of people like Gloria Steinem, ultra-right wing religious groups, and parents’ organizations? And, do they have a point?

The reason I ask is because television, particularly cable television, has become riddled with female nudity, female sexuality, sex and violence, and women in barely-there skimpy bathing suits, over the past couple of decades. Women have certainly worn a lot less on camera than the actresses of NBC’s now defunct, The Playboy Club, were wearing. So, it stands to reason that it must be the Playboy Bunny image that makes some people see red. Society seems to be ready to throw away that image of the young woman as a “bunny.” Interesting, and even perhaps encouraging, from a female perspective.

As for the inventor of the Playboy Bunny, Hef had this to say about the cancellation of The Playboy Club: “I’m sorry NBC’s ‘The Playboy Club’ didn’t find its audience. It should have been on cable, aimed at a more adult audience.” Hmmm, Hef has a point. And it leads me to wonder if a premium cable channel will pick it up, revamp it and air it.

When I interviewed actress Jenna Dewan Tatum who played Bunny Janie on NBC’s The Playboy Club, Dewan had this to say about the nature of the Playboy Bunny iniform that has caused such a negative stir:

“I think it’s a beautiful, sexy, womanly outfit. I also believe that by today’s standards, we are wearing a lot more clothing [on the show] than most bathing suits and bikinis out there (laughs). What I love so much about the Playboy bunny costume is that it creates this hourglass figure when you wear it. For somebody like me who has to work hard to have my curves it’s nice to wear something that helps me out a little bit, gives me that corset and gives me those hips. As soon as you put it on you feel empowered, you feel sexy and you feel womanly. There are very few things I’ve worn in my life that I can say make me feel more like a woman.”

NBC will replace The Playboy Club with Rock Center , an all-star cast of journalists taking viewers on a weekly journey of discovery,” said Steve Capus, president of NBC News, and Greenblatt in a joint statement.