FCC: Monday Night Football Skit Not Indecent

The FCC ruled Monday that the Monday Night Football skit featuring a nude Nicollette Sheridan was not “indecent.”

FCC Finds Nothing Indecent about Monday Night Football

U.S. communications regulators ruled on Monday that there was no violation of decency standards in the introductory segment of ABC’s “Monday Night Football†featuring actress Nicollette Sheridan dropping a towel and baring her back. The controversial TV fragment, which aired on November 15 at the opening if the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Dallas Cowboys, showed the “Desperate Housewives†star trying to seduce football player Terrell Owens by dropping the towel she is wearing and, thus, exposing her back to the viewers from the waist up. Although the segment was free from unconcealed sexual content and foul language, ABC said it received complaints from its viewers who claimed it was inappropriate.

However, the five-member panel of the Federal Communications Commission ruled that there was nothing indecent about it. “Although the scene apparently is intended to be titillating, it simply is not graphic or explicit enough to be indecent under our standard,” the commission told Reuters.

Now, had it been Roseanne Arnold (or whatever name she’s using now) that would have been indecent.

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Steve Wheelock says:

    …Which gives even more confirmation to my suspicion that this uproar wasn’t about nudity, but race, and maybe at least one of the specific individuals involved. As has been pointed out elsewhere, this was no racier than what shows up in the middle of the day on the soaps.

  2. Jesus Christ says:

    Shut up, liberal coward!

  3. Randy Fales says:

    Please children today are exposed to all sort of pressure from there school and other student most kids are haveing sex before the age of 14. The restricts set on TV are crazy. If there is going to be something you don’t want your kids to watch put a blocker on your TV and it takes a code to watch certain programs if you are not around and leave your childred alone you will have to blame yourself if your children don’t obey.