The Most Violent Fall TV Shows

Among its findings were that some broadcast TV shows with a lot of violence have more lenient ratings than cable shows that exhibit similar content.

What we found most interesting was the breakdown of the most violent shows on television.

Granted, they only looked at fall TV shows - otherwise, "Hannibal" and "The Following" definitely would have topped this list - however, the results are still interesting since it looks like shows on broadcast TV are more violent than those on cable.

Left off this list are also premium shows like HBO's "Game of Thrones" and "True Blood" (again, not fall series anyway).

According to the PTC, here were the seven most violent shows on cable this fall:

"American Horror Story" (FX)
"The Walking Dead" (AMC)
"Sons of Anarchy" (FX)
"Breaking Bad" (AMC)
"Copper" (BBC America)
"Justified" (FX)
"Bullet in the Face" (IFC)

See a trend in the networks?

And here are the seven most violent dramas on broadcast TV:

"Revolution" (NBC)
"The Blacklist" (NBC)
"Supernatural" (CW)
"Criminal Minds" (CBS)
"Sleepy Hollow" (FOX)
"CSI" (CBS)
"Law & Order: SVU" (NBC)

Note that of the big networks, no ABC show made the list. We were told that no shows from the network were found to be among the most violent on TV.

The study came up with its results by looking at the first four episodes of the fall 2012 and 2013 seasons of each show and recording every moment of "violence" and "graphic violence."

Violence was defined as "the intent to harm; destruction of property; accidental violence; or self-harm" while graphic violence was described as "vivid, brutal and realistic acts of violence."

It was found that "Revolution" "aired more violence than 6 of the 7 most violent shows on cable and more graphic violence than 4 of the 7 most violent shows on cable."

Here are the total acts of violence recorded on each show along with its TV rating*:

*The PTC pointed out that "The Walking Dead" has since switched to a TV-MA rating.

Here's another way to look at that data:

And here are the weapons used most often. Poison is not a weapon of choice.

"Revolution"

A sword is used to slit a man's throat after he tries to gouge a person's eyes out. (episode: 9/25/13)

"Criminal Minds"

A person is bludgeoned to death with a hammer. (10/16/13)

"The Blacklist"

A man getting stabbed in the thigh and stomach with a knife. (9/23/13)

"The Walking Dead"

Use of machetes to chop off zombie heads (episode from 10/14/12)Someone's leg being brutally amputated by an axe (airdate: 10/14/12)

"American Horror Story"

A woman being murdered after getting stabbed with scissors in the neck. (10/31/12)

"Sons of Anarchy"

A woman being burnt alive. (9/11/12)

You can read the full study here.