CBS - CENSORS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?

CENSORS ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL?

Last week's court ruling that the FCC could not bar the use of "fleetingexpletives" during live telecasts may have resulted in a more relaxedatmosphere in the control booth during Sunday night's CBS coverage of theTony Awards. The upshot was that when actor John Mahoney departed from thescript and used the profanity "goddamn," it went out over the air, despite afive-second time delay. It was followed by a second or two of dead air, "asthough someone were slow on the button," as Broadcasting & Cableobserved on its website. The offending word was later removed from theWest Coast feed. "It was an unwelcomed adlib," a CBS spokeswoman told thetrade publication. The musical Spring Awakening received eight Tonyawards, including best musical and best score by Duncan Sheik and StevenSater, while the Tom Stoppard drama The Coast of Utopia took sevenawards, the most ever handed out for a drama. Ratings for the awards weredown 19 percent from a year ago.

11/06/2007