‘HawthoRNe’ Cancellation Result of Audience Sexism

COMMENTARY | After a great 3 season run, TNT decided to call HawthoRNe quits. Is this a result of the rumor mill and subsequent bad publicity, outright sexism from the population of viewers, or a combination of all of the above with a bit of bad story direction thrown in for good measure?

It began with Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony’s split in mid-July. At the same time, episodes of HawthoRNe aired depicting Jada Pinkett-Smith’s character, Christina Hawthorne, cheating on her husband, Tom (played by Michael Vartan), with Detective Nick Renata (played by Marc Anthony). This is one of those instances where general viewers can’t seem to separate fantasy from reality. Immediately after the split was announced, speculation about Pinkett-Smith’s relationship with Anthony began as a result of the storyline. Suddenly the Smiths were thrust into the gossip.

At the beginning of season 3, Christina Hawthorne was beaten so severely she lost her baby. Suddenly, the show was thrust into an entirely different territory. Hawthorne was out of work and her personal life was in shambles. HawthoRNe was no longer about a head nurse and the show’s focus was no longer on medicine, which was what propelled the show to begin with. But even more than that, many viewers were outraged with the direction the protagonist took when she cheated on her husband.

I was offered a unique look into this when my own husband stopped watching the show after Christina slept with Nick. His reasoning was that she was the hero of the show and the writers shouldn’t have written that in. While I didn’t particularly like it either, I argued that television shows are supposed to be realistic. Real-life heroes are not without sin themselves, and it is that expectation of perfection that often drives those we hold on pedestals to their rock bottom. But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t going to watch it again, regardless.

When I pointed out we’d watched plenty of shows where a male protagonist cheated on his wife and he didn’t stop watching them, I’d finally gotten to the bottom of the problem. Most women expect men to be cheaters because, well, they’re men. Women are still perceived with a manner of conservatism; our sexuality is better kept hidden. Women are seen as so much worse if they are the ones doing the cheating. Neither stereotype is very fair but it’s there nonetheless.

This stereotype definitely had a hand in the cancellation of the show. If it had been Will Smith in a hot scene with Jennifer Lopez when Lopez and Anthony split, there might have still been rumors but it’s doubtful there would have been much backlash on the Smiths as there was.

And now fans will never really know if Nick Renata shot himself or if Tom shot him.


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