Fox Reality
Channel wants Welcome to the Neighborhood

Even though ABC pulled the reality show Welcome to the Neighborhood before it aired, at least one other network has offered to broadcast the show about people from different social and ethnic groups--including a gay family--competing to buy a house in a conservative Austin, Texas, neighborhood. Variety reports that Fox Reality Channel has contacted ABC about airing the show, which came under fire from housing fairness groups, Christian conservatives, and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. But ABC hasn't ruled out airing the show--and if it does do so, it won't want the show to pop up anywhere else. "If I don't think something should be aired, why would I sell it to somebody else?" Steve McPherson, ABC's president of prime-time entertainment, told reporters last week. "For financial gain or just to get it out there? That doesn't make any [sense]. If you don't think something is responsible to be broadcast, why would you encourage it to be broadcast elsewhere?"

An article published in Tuesday's Chicago Tribune was written by a resident of the neighborhood who reported that it's a shame that audiences won't get to see Neighborhood. "The man who insisted he would not tolerate gays has an epiphany by the end, averring that 'You forget about the gay issue and realize they are just people,' " wrote Howard Witt, although he added that after the gay couple won the house, "the owners of the home behind it promptly put their place up for sale...announcing that they didn't want to live near homosexuals."