ABC’S WORK IT OUT OF WORK

After airing only two episodes, ABC has axed Work It, a show that had drawn fire from GLAAD, the gay-rights group, and from virtually every TV critic. TV Guide critic Matt Roush called it “atrocious” and “an instant early candidate for Worst Show of 2012.” Robert Lloyd in the Los Angeles Times remarked: “If you want to call it insulting to men who dress as women, you have to also call it insulting to men who don’t, and to women.” The entertainment website IGN gave it its first “0” rating since 1998, while its TV editor, Matt Fowler, excoriated it as a “freakish, insulting abomination.” GLAAD went after it in trade advertisements and online protests, arguing that the show’s premise — two out-of-work men dress in drag to get jobs reserved for women — encourages ridicule of transgender persons. In a statement, Herndon Graddick, senior director of programs and communications for GLAAD, said today (Saturday) that as a result of the campaign against the show “an important dialogue has been started in Hollywood and mainstream media about the real discrimination faced by transgender people today.”However, low ratings rather than gay-rights protests and negative reviews may have been the principal reason for the cancellation. It debuted on January 3 with a mediocre 6.2 million viewers, then plunged to 4.9 million on January 10.