Should local affiliates censor shows?

[nick3092]

Fox 6 decided the Osbournes Reloaded is not fit for TV.  Should local affiliates be allowed to censor their parent network shows?

[NET10]

Speaking as a father to 2 kids, ages 9 and 13, who watch Idol, I applaud FOX 6 for delaying the show until 1:00AM.  I could not believe it when I saw the commercials for that show.

[Tom Snyder]

Local stations aren't licensed by the network..they're licensed by the FCC to serve their market. Locals are in the best position to determine the appropriateness of network programming in their market. They're not a moral guardian, they just know whether the market will respond positively... and if not, and they think they can put something else on that will do that, they can do whatever they want. We have lot of kids dying here of overdoses lately...another one this week...and Fox 6 chose to use this as teaching moment.

If you really want to watch Ozzie, do what I do for every show I watch: DVR it when it's on and watch it when it's convenient.

BTW, I bought the very first Black Sabbath album sold in Milwaukee at Dirty Jack's Record Rack on a stormy May night in 1970 in Milwaukee, so it's not that I'm an anti-Ozzie zealot. But I didn't DVR this show.

[vegasvic]

It's not censored, it's moved to another time.  That's what DVR's are for.

[TPK]

It's not censored, it's moved to another time.  That's what DVR's are for.

1) Not everyone has a DVR

2) It seems like this was a last minute change and DVRs (at least my own U-verse DVR) do not know about this particular change

No, I am not a big fan of Ozzie Ozbourne or most of this reality garbage that has infiltrated television over the past decade (I do enjoy Idol though; I see it as a talent show and not so much as a reality show)...   Its just that I don't want to see television censorship handed over to the right-wing nuts, that are going to decide one day that religious programming is more "appropriate" for me to watch than regular programming (even if that regular programming is Ozzie or some other stupid thing that I wouldn't want to watch anyways)....

Granted thats a bit extreme, but its a slippery slope...

I agree that the local affiliate probably has the "right" to change their programming, but I think they really shouldn't be in the business of deciding what is appropriate and what is not, thats what mommy and daddy are for...

... edit ...

Yes, I am aware that there has been a recent rash of teenage deaths due to drug overdosing lately, and I do not want to seem insensitive to that (this touches me more personally than I am going to elaborate about here)...   It seems to me, however, that if they wanted to raise awareness on this issue, they would have been better of scheduling it normally (perhaps they could have slotted it in as part of their 9:00 news) and letting people know about it, rather than pulling a last minute switch like that...

[Talos4]

I had no interest in watching it.

I'm a long time Sabbath fan, and took a little guilty pleasure at watching the Osbourn's. Reloaded looked foolish and a waste of time.  

It's not censorship, it's time shifting.

Not to get all high and mighty here but,

What's next? :confused:

Telescreens?

Newspeak?

Two minute Hate?

"We don't think you should watch this, here's something we think is better for you and your family"  

Really? I think my and your remote remote does more for me and mine than the Fox 6 program director.

Instead of Brad Hicks let's find O'Brien and put him on.

[SRW1000]

I agree that the local affiliate probably has the "right" to change their programming, but I think they really shouldn't be in the business of deciding what is appropriate and what is not, thats what mommy and daddy are for...

It's up to each station to determine what is appropriate to air in their market.  If they feel that a program is inappropriate for their market, not only do they have the right to either delay or not air it, they may very well feel that they have an obligation to due so, for the benefit of both the public and their owners/shareholders.

At the same time, if this upsets viewers, they should be quick to contact the station and let them know that they disagree.  It could be that they have just misjudged their audiences sensibilities.

For this particular program, it's doubtful that very many people will have missed it.  As far as offensive content goes, it's hard to believe it's any worse than the March 8th episode of Family Guy, which WITI didn't seem to have any problem airing.

Scott

[WITI6fan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nielsen_Ratings

Nielsen 2009 sweeps dates...
...March 5 - April 1, 2009...

Today was the last day of sweeps. Management must have believed (and was probably right) that this local special would pull in more viewers than the Osbourne special would have. Anything following Idol would have a strong lead-in, and I think they probably tried to save their newscast ratings by keeping those viewers tuned to 6 until the 9PM news. The Osbourne special probably wouldn't have been so kind.

At least it's not like last ratings period where they replayed the Harley parade and 20 minutes of month-old news in place of the news at 9. :rolleyes:

[vegasvic]

I was curious so I recorded it and watched it this morning.  A bigger trainwreck I have not seen.  I've always like Ozzy but this was embarassingly bad.

[foxeng]

Stations were sent a 6 minute "sizzler reel" on Friday. FOX said there was no preview show available for it. From what was on the sizzler reel, it was a FCC fine waiting to happen. The final cut had most of that sizzler reel removed for air though but most stations that opted to either delay or not air it, based that decision on that sizzler reel because that is all they had and most who have seen the show today via on demand, have said they made the right decision for their markets. My station opted to delay it until 12 AM local. I DVR'ed it. I watched the first 5 minutes of it and deleted it. What a POS.

Remember the FCC allows stations to broadcast "in the public interest" not what they always want to do and with the FCC getting hot and heavy on fines these days that start at $325,000, no station wants to get hit with that in these economic times. It really shouldn't have been scheduled after Idol. That was a mistake for FOX to do that. Talk is the other 5 shows will either go late night or will never air. The PR is just too bad on it right now.

[mindmess]

No. If they want to be affiliated with the network show the friggin shows. If you want to pick and choose, be independent. I understand that some of our young people have died, but would this not be proof of Darwin's law? Sorry if this sounds cruel but how else do you put it? "It's not their fault, you didn't pay enough attention to them. or give them enough to be the top tier."
And before you go all nuts on me yes I have dealt with drug death before. And attempted. Same crap, different dealer.
Truth be told, Ozzy shoulda passed on years ago so that we would remember him as a great rocker instead of the bumbling money whore Sharon turned him into.
You want to run a "Drug Special", interrupt your "news" programming and show it then. Else stop pretending to affiliate to a network and be independent.
Sorry if I sound too down, but the crap in this town is getting waaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy to deep. Gonna need a plane just to get around.

[mrschimpf]

I fretted about the pre-emption after I heard about it on Saturday night. I'm not the biggest fan of reality TV, but everything deserves a chance once.

By the time I had finished watching it, I think I see 6's point completely. That was 35 minutes I'll never get back. They were right to push it off to infomercial time based on the quality and content of the show.

It was just worth it though to watch at the beginning of the drug special Brad Hicks in his serious angry anchor voice "it'll be on at 1am if you feel like staying up." It's like he was daring everyone to stay up, sit through the show and see how they felt in the morning .

[Talos4]

It was just worth it though to watch at the beginning of the drug special Brad Hicks in his serious angry anchor voice "it'll be on at 1am if you feel like staying up." It's like he was daring everyone to stay up, sit through the show and see how they felt in the morning





"The voice came from an oblong metal plaque like a dulled mirror which formed part of the surface of the right-hand wall. Winston turned a switch and the voice sank somewhat, though the words were still distinguishable. The instrument could be dimmed, but there was no way of shutting it off completely."

[bschlafer]

"Go back to bed, America. Your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed, America. Your government is in control again. Here. Here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed, America.  Here is 56 channels of horses***! Watch these pituitary retards bang their f**king skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go, America! You are free to do what we tell you! You are free to do what we tell you!  YOU ARE FREE TO DO WHAT WE TELL YOU!!!"  

- The late, great Bill Hicks (quote edited for language, to keep impressionable children on this blog from being corrupted reading words that they hear everyday on the street)


*Bill

[Dan the Man]

I finally watched this show on Sat. AM and what a pile of crap. The show had no point and was nothing more that the Osborn's acting like Jack***es for 35 minutes on TV. I would have been embarrassed to be in the audience if I was one of those people. Fox should never have put this on the network. It was completely stupid.

Fox 6 did the right thing by delaying it. I hope that Fox Network pulled the plug on this. Perhaps this will be the last we see of these 4 whack jobs as well on network TV.

P.S. I like Ozzy's music but that has nothing to do with this show. Sharron is doing nothing but pimping out Ozzy and those brats.