ABSTRACT
In a television campaign ad for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid, television showrunner Shonda Rhimes and the leading women on her “TGIT” or “Thank God it’s Thursday” ABC channel lineup, including Kerry Washington, Viola Davis and Ellen Pompeo, look directly into the camera and explain the kind of leading female characters they play on their respective television shows, Scandal (ABC, 2012-present), How to Get Away With Murder (ABC, 2014-present) and Grey’s Anatomy (ABC, 2005-present). They tell the viewers that they play women who are “brilliant, complex, over-qualified, get it done women,” who work for justice and who care and who “give a voice to the voiceless.” They insist that even when they get “knocked down,” they still “get back up” (Vick, 2016). At that point, Rhimes turns directly to the camera and offers the following:
I made television filled with the kind of characters I imagine we all can be. Our characters are on television, but the real world has Hillary Clinton. A bonafide, rolls-up-her-sleeves, fights for what’s right, in it for you, won’t back down champion for all of us.
