Media Decoder Blog: Gun-Focused Reality TV Shows Get New Scrutiny After Newtown Killings

The topics of guns and gun use continue to resonate across the media landscape in the days after the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn. One show that may be affected is the popular reality show “Sons of Guns,” which is shown on the Discovery Channel.

The show’s third season finished airing in October, but on Tuesday a spokeswoman for the network, Laurie Goldberg, could not state definitively what future, if any, the show might have on Discovery. “All I can say is, it is not on the schedule and it is not on the schedule in the near future,” Ms. Goldberg said.

Asked if the show had been renewed for another season, Ms. Goldberg said she did not know its status. “There is no data that I am aware of” about whether the show had been renewed, she said.

“Sons of Guns” deals with a custom gun-making company in Louisiana, Red Jacket Firearms, and often features customers firing specially made firearms, including assault rifles and sniper rifles. In a clip on the show’s Web site, the guitarist Joe Perry, from the rock group Aerosmith, is shown enjoying test-firing a fully automatic M4 assault rifle. (Then his wife gets a crack at shooting the weapon.)

The comments about the now-murky future of “Sons of Guns” come at the same time that Discovery is confirming that its other series about gun manufacturing, “American Guns,” has officially been canceled.

Ms. Goldberg said that decision was unrelated to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School on Friday, which left 20 schoolchildren and six of their caretakers dead. Rather, she said, Discovery three months ago had quietly decided to drop the series.

Ratings for “American Guns” had fallen off, Ms. Goldberg said. She acknowledged, however, that “Sons of Guns” had had “pretty solid ratings.”

Article source: http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/18/gun-focused-reality-tv-shows-get-new-scrutiny-after-newtown-killings/?partner=rss&emc=rss