TV fare is awash in gore

NEW YORK — The body count in prime-time television these days rivals that of a war zone.

The popularity of CBS's "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," its spinoffs, imitators and other crime or supernatural shows has made network TV home to an astonishing amount of blood 'n' guts, which has attracted little notice due to a preoccupation with sex.

During the last week of September, there were 63 dead bodies visible during prime time on the six broadcast networks. That's up sharply from the 27 bodies counted during the same week in 2004.

This year, channel surfers in that one week could spot:

• The lead character in Fox's "Bones" discovering a badly decomposed body hanging in a tree, crows picking on the remains.

• A man preparing dinner on the WB's "Supernatural" when his sink suddenly fills with water. He reaches in and something grabs him, pulls his head in the water and drowns him.

• On CBS's "CSI: NY," a man falling after trying to climb the outside of a skyscraper. He hits a ledge, and a large chunk of flesh falls to the street.

• A driver speeding up to hit a woman coming out of the clinic on NBC's "Inconceivable." She's shown hitting the windshield, flying through the air and lying on the ground with blood dripping from her mouth and nose.

Then there's the gunshot victim with blood spurting from his chest, the man screaming as he's being burned alive, the murdered woman whose eyes had been removed and eyelids stitched shut and the medical examiner using pliers to pull a diamond from a dead man's chest.

You get the idea.

"The whole name of the game in television is holding attention," said Martin Kaplan, professor at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication. "Ever since we were creatures on the savannah, fear, sex and novelty were things that made our heads jerk."

The reign of "CSI" as television's most popular show is clearly the leading factor in the trend. CBS, in particular, keeps putting new crime-oriented dramas on the air and the public keeps lapping them up.

"I think one of the drawing cards of 'CSI' is that it is depicted very real and sort of gross," said David Janollari, WB entertainment president. "It's part of why the audience comes to see it."

Television must compete for attention with movies, where the effects can be even more graphic, he said.

"Gore is not a goal in and of itself," said Peter Liguori, Fox entertainment president. "Accurate storytelling is. When you look at a show like 'Bones,' Bones is a real-life forensic psychologist. This is what she sees on a daily basis when she's called in to solve a case."