Davis
Moonves
Karmazin
Keep your shirt on, Oscar.
Not even the traditionally well-behaved Academy Awards ceremony is immune to the storm over indecency that is lashing the broadcast biz. For the first time ever, ABC wants to impose a delay on its telecast of the Oscars, so that inappropriate material can be edited out.
ABC approached the Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences about using a five-second delay. On Tuesday night, the AMPAS board voted not to change its plans for the show, but will not fight the web execs: "It's up to them," said an Acad spokesman.
Unlike other live telecasts, the Oscars have never been subject to a delay -- a point of pride for the org. While board members understand the web's concerns, they decided to make no changes to their Oscarcast strategy.
ABC first approached the org last week about a possible delay, even before Janet Jackson's breast-baring during Sunday's Super Bowl halftime show. Networks were already skittish about live events, thanks to such occurrences as the expletive from U2's Bono at last year's Golden Globe awards on NBC.
Throughout Tuesday, the Super Bowl spectacle continued to engulf CBS in controversy. Still in full damage control, Eye announced it will employ an unprecedented, enhanced tape and video delay when televising Sunday's Grammy Awards. Delay could be as much as five minutes and will utilize a complex mix of computer software and automatic tape machines.
Also, insiders said CBS and Grammy officials are in constant communication regarding whether or not Janet Jackson will participate in the awards show. Talks continue, with several industry insiders suggesting CBS would prefer Jackson not appear.
The networks use a five-second delay on most live events, which allows them to edit for audio.
"The network has made it clear they're feeling enormous pressure to institute a delay," AMPAS exec director Bruce Davis said. "ABC may factor in the board's decision, but has indicated that it will not necessarily feel obligated to follow it."
In theory, a five-second delay would not affect the ceremonies at the Kodak Theatre. But a network exec would have his finger on the bleep button, which is a consideration.
"We would be very concerned about a delay that would raise possibility of a network representative deciding that remarks like Michael Moore's last year would be inappropriate," Davis said. "We don't want that kind of censorship. The ability to edit out a single word or a body part is different; that's not the same kind of concern, although some would see it as the camel's nose moving into our tent."
Given the current climate, ABC may be willing to go against the Academy's wishes if it means protecting its affiliates and its owned & operated stations.
What game?
And the network wants to protect the event itself: One ABC exec noted that talk about the actual Super Bowl, which was an exciting game, has been easily overshadowed by talk about Jackson.
With indecency already on the minds of Washington regulators sitting down to watch the Super Bowl, Jackson's stunt couldn't have come at a worse time for CBS, which maintains it had no idea that she had arranged for singer Justin Timberlake to pull her top off. Show was produced by sister company MTV.
The CBS Affiliate Advisory Board held a conference call Tuesday and afterward demanded the net do something to ensure that Sunday's Grammy telecast would be free of content that would raise red flags at the FCC or in Congress.
In a letter to CBS chair-CEO Leslie Moonves, with copies forwarded to Viacom prexy Mel Karmazin and CBS head of affiliate relations Peter Schruth, affils lambasted the net for allowing the indecent content in the halftime show to take place and informing Eye execs they plan to "cooperate fully" with the FCC investigation and any other inquiries.
"The CBS Affiliates regard themselves as partners with the network," CBS Affiliate Advisory Board chair Bob Lee wrote in the communique.
"In what should have been a triumphant occasion for that partnership, the network let us down and embarrassed us in front of our public. It was not just one incident in the halftime show; from beginning to end, the show was in poor taste and reflected poor judgment," said Lee, GM of WDBJ in Roanoke, Va.
Affiliates have good reason to worry -- they could each be fined $27,000 for airing the bawdy halftime show. The agency Monday sent CBS a formal letter of inquiry, which alerts the net of the investigation and asks execs to provide their version of events in a timely manner. The question that agency officials are now pondering if whether to fine all of the affiliates or just the network owned-and-operated stations, FCC sources said. If the agency fines all CBS stations, penalties could exceed $5 million.
"We are just as outraged as the affiliates are," CBS spokesman Dana McClintock said.
MTV Networks chairman-CEO seemed equally upset over the incident.
"We were really ripped off. We were punk'd by Janet Jackson," Freston said at an industry panel in New York Tuesday, referring to MTV's reality show that makes celebrities the butt of practical jokes.
Insiders said CBS was equally outraged at the prospect of Jackson appearing at the Grammys. CBS could use its leverage to make sure she doesn't.
Jackson is scheduled as a presenter. As of Tuesday afternoon, Jackson had not been asked to bow out by the National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences, which administers the Grammys.
Justin Timberlake will perform as planned. "There's a big difference between a stage on a football field and the Grammy awards," a Recording Academy spokesman said. "He's nominated for his music and that's what he wants to celebrate."
Gripes roll in
The FCC has received 100,000 email complaints about the Super Bowl so far; that figure doesn't include any complaints arriving via regular mail; the D.C. government post office is shut down because of the ricin discovered in a Senate mailroom Monday.
The complaints were not focused entirely on Jackson's exposure; some referred to the dirty dancing, Nelly's crotch-grabbing, the lyrics in some of the songs and Kid Rock's cutting up the flag and wearing it as a shirt.
Before the FCC considers whether it will fine owned-and-operated stations differently than regular CBS affiliates, the agency must decide which parts of the halftime show constitute indecency violations.
"They all say we're just passing on network programming, but at the same time they'll say we're the broadcaster," said the FCC's media legal adviser Jonathan Cody. "We have to consider whether or not to go down this road, whether the O&Os should be subject to different kinds of fines because this is so new from a legal perspective."
Cody added that he did not know if the agency has the authority to treat different types of stations differently.
The agency also has the power to fine Jackson directly for planning and pulling off the stunt; Cody said while that is possible, it is not probable.
Some industry observers has speculated that the heavy fines and outrage over the Super Bowl could force the championship game off the public airwaves entirely and could be available in the future only the pay-per-view status.
"I certainly hope that's not what this comes to," Cody said. "I hope smarter heads prevail. That's a question for the NFL and CBS. My personal opinion is these guys have to go figure how to go about doing this. We've had 30 some Super Bowls broadcast over the public airwaves ... but I don't know if there's another 30 years in it. Whether it's cable or not, you still have the interest in protecting children."
Agitated affils
In their letter to CBS brass, Lee also demanded an immediate accounting as to why the net allowed the show to occur and what steps it is taking to prevent any kind of a repeat performance.
"We regret that in this instance we cannot support the network, which normally we are proud to be affiliated with. Because we are on the frontline of CBS' relations with millions of Americans, we ask that you give us a full and immediate information about your own efforts to identify where the planning and implementation of the halftime show went awry and the steps CBS is taking to assure that no episode of this kind will ever occur again," the affils wrote.
(Timothy M. Gray and Phil Gallo in Hollywood and the Associated Press contributed to this report.)
Contact Pamela McClintock at
pamela.mcclintock@variety.com