(Hollywood, California) Gay characters on television have become an endangered species the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation said Thursday.

GLAAD said that the number of LGBT characters on network TV has dropped to its lowest level since the organization began tracking in 1996.

"When you turn to cable and reality TV, you see us -- our lives, our relationships, our diversity," said GLAAD Executive Director Joan M. Garry.  "But when you turn to network comedies and dramas, you're seeing portraits of an America where gay people and families are nearly invisible.  That's not the America we live in."

In addition to Bravo's "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy," this fall has a strong line-up of inclusive reality shows, with two lesbian contestants on CBS' "Survivor: Vanuatu," a gay couple on Fox's home renovation competition "The Complex: Malibu," and two gay housemates on MTV's "The Real World: Philadelphia."  Other reality shows that feature openly gay participants include, among others, ABC's "The Benefactor," UPN's "Amish in the City" and Showtime's "American Candidate."

However, the surge in inclusive reality TV representations, and the corresponding rise in reality programming,  is offset by the continuing under-representation of LGBT characters on broadcast network scripted series -- with only five gay male characters

and one lesbian character

in 2004, GLAAD said.

 This year there is only one new gay character in primetime: George (played by Patrick Breen in a supporting role), a nanny who works for the title character in UPN's high-profile Taye Diggs-starrer "Kevin Hill."

In sharp contrast, cable dramas (such as HBO's "The Wire," FX's "Nip/Tuck" and The N's "Degrassi: The Next Generation"), with a total of 15 gay male, nine lesbian and two bisexual female characters, continue to break new ground in textured, three-dimensional storytelling - though on programs with smaller audiences than the broadcast networks.

The study also showed there is invisibility of gay and lesbian couples and families on scripted network TV.  The cancellation of ABC's groundbreaking "It's All Relative" leaves scripted network primetime without representations of same-sex couples and families.

Even more troublesome is the potential for more defamatory exploitation in the reality genre, GLAAD said.  Despite Fox's decision in May to shelve the homophobic "Seriously, Dude, I'm Gay" - which featured two men forced to fool others into thinking they were gay though a series of humiliating tasks - GLAAD remains concerned about reality programs that mimic the concepts, but not the spirit, of hit shows like "Queer Eye."