Critics these days don’t seem to be paying a whole lot of attention to ABC Family’s The Secret Life of the American Teenager, choosing instead to fawn over its primary time period competitor, The CW’s high-profile Gossip Girl, which also revolves around teen tumult and turmoil. Tellingly, the media is drawn more to the outsize fantasy of Gossip Girl than the underscored reality of Secret Life. The fact that the latter often attracts more total viewers than the former – even in such crucial demographics as viewers 12-34, women 18-34 and adults 18-49 – seems to be of little interest. It’s an odd disconnect, not simply because Secret Life is the most successful original series in the history of ABC Family, but because with its straightforward exploration of teen sexuality and pregnancy it is arguably the most controversial show on television. Or it would be, if the real-life problems of the suburban kids on Secret Life were as interesting to myopic media mavens as the otherworldly crises of the obscenely wealthy brats on Gossip Girl.
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