KSL, the Salt Lake City NBC affiliate owned by the Mormon church, is opting not to air NBC's new comedy The New Normal. The show's premise involves a gay couple who hires a single mother to be to be their surrogate. The station deemed the show, "inappropriate on several dimensions", presumably referring to the show's gay relationship and politically incorrect dialogue. KSL also chooses not to air Saturday Night Live. Last season, it refused to broadcast The Playboy Club. Another Salt Lake City station, KUCW, will air The New Normal on the weekend.
As a proud Canadian and friend of the US – I do apologise for the earlier rude poster, and also for subjecting you to crappy Canadian shows, especially during the summer. We feel your pain, as most of us would rather not even have to see them once, let alone twice (on your channels and on ours.)
But, it might be nice if you returned the favour. I know, I know, sort of impossible since we get most of your channels and promote your shows as our own up here – but imagine if Canada could be ‘Glass House-free’, or ‘Whitney-free’, or ‘almost all of TLC Honey BooBoo type programming-free’. Ah what a dream.
We are also extremely proud to have many fine ‘American’ programs filmed here, usually with Canadian crews and Canadian guest stars. So even though we aren’t supposed to, we secretly claim those as our own too….especially when I can often watch them filming outside my office building on my lunch breaks.
Unfortunately in some cases that counts for nothing when it comes to airing them – it is getting better, but a few of these shows aired on the cable networks aren’t shown here for weeks or even months after you get to see them down south.
So please, feel sorry for us sad, Warehouse 13-deprived Canadians, soon to wave goodbye to the short short summer and retreat to our winter igloos. Our brains freeze, you see, so we don’t realise what crap we’ve given you (and ourselves!) until the next summer, when it’s just too late.
@Bill
Unforgettable is a production of Sony, not of CBS Studios. Sony could have given it cheap to CBS to get it to syndication.
@Nick: Maybe it’d turn my tongue blue, but not my blood. Unless I happen to be chewing Willy Wonka’s magic three-course meal gum…CUE THE BODY HORROR!
@Julie: You kill me.
@Julie
Awesome post! Well, except for the Whitney part.
@Ricky
lol.
@Nick
LOL – to each their own – that’s the best part of BOTH our countries! Thx.
@Ricky
“Unforgettable is a production of Sony, not of CBS Studios. Sony could have given it cheap to CBS to get it to syndication.”
I should have been clearer.
It’s not that I don’t think Unforgettable will ever air, but instead that my wild guess at this point is that Unforgettable is being kept in production so that it can be “on the bench” if needed for replacement *during* the regular 2012-13 broadcast season. If not needed, then it would air during the summer 2013.
CBS has only announced one “replacement” drama for 2012-13 (Golden Boy). If more than one of their new dramas tank, they’re not the kind of organization that likes to be caught with an unplanned opening they can’t fill.
I have nothing against gay people…..but, I am sick of these annoying shows revolving around gay characters that are the same exact thing. Will & Grace, and now Partners and The New Normal, and while they are not the focal point, it’s the same thing on Modern Family.
It’s funny that these shows are championed by gay EPs/creators who claim they are tearing down walls when THEY are actually perpetuating the stereotypes. If you really want to fight stereotypes have a show about a character who is obsessed with sports, does not care about his appearance and just happens to be gay. Instead of showing that a gay person can be just like anyone else and advancing their cause so maybe these affiliates won’t reject their shows, they continue to have gay characters who are white collar people who bitch about their mother, talk about shoes etc.
@Julie: You don’t like Whiney either? I like your taste.
@Rex: Sounds like your idea of a perfect “regular” gay character would be the big muscle-bound guy from ParaNorman. Which, BTW, is causing a great deal of controversy.
Now remind me, how did we end up discussing such varied topics as Canada, blueberries, and Whiney Cummings in this article?
@TomKH
Don’t them people know they’re giving the shows they’re boycotting free publicity with this kind of move?
I think you have the Mormon church confused with an activist group. See, an activist group wants to force everyone to behave in a certain fashion and would therefore want the show pulled everywhere and to minimize viewership. In this case, they don’t care what other people do (or at least accept their freedom to do as they wish), they just disagree with the show and do not want to broadcast it, which is their right.
Ive lost respect in some people there. Happy that i dont know many people like u guys
@Noname_rex
I’m personally surprised NBC hasn’t tried to strip KSL of its affiliation yet
You’re surprised that NBC puts profit over draconian control of its affiliates? Really?
@JayTN
In theory, the American public owns the airwaves that both NBC and KSL broadcast on.
Um, no.
I think the idea is stupid and the show won’t last a season. Since gay people make up 2% of the US population not sure why one has to be included in every tv show. Guess it’s the quota system all over again! MTV started this crap and brainwashed kids who don’t know right from wrong yet.
@Ricky
No I don’t like Whitney (or most other broadcast sitcoms), but I do love Supernatural….so that just may sway your opinion of me! lol
Oh but I love blueberries. :p
Having sat through countless hours of all the new fall pilots, THE NEW NORMAL was actually the most original and well-written of the bunch. All these people who are saying how terrible it is have never seen it and are basing their opinions on nothing but network promos, their hatred of Ryan Murphy, homophobia or hearsay. Grow up already.
I find KSL’s decision quite disgusting. They are free to hold religious views, and the point of the show being “terrible” – despite the fact that most of the people saying it’s terrible haven’t even watched the show yet – is irrelevent. The fact that the show has been deemed “inappropriate” by KSL and that it is the only scripted NBC show to not be broadcast this fall on NBC and the fact that it’s the only NBC show centred around a gay couple seems a bit of a big coincidence, and a tab homophobic – although we all know about religion’s track record when it comes to homosexuality!
I’m just glad that the UK media is more accepting of homosexuality, and that the show has already been picked up over here by one of the largest cable channels.
@gene
All these people who are saying how terrible it is have never seen it and are basing their opinions on nothing but network promos, their hatred of Ryan Murphy, homophobia or hearsay. Grow up already.
Isn’t that how the vast majority of the potential audience for a show decides whether to watch it or not – network promos, hearsay, who’s in it and what it’s about? It may be a shock to you, but most viewers make the decision to not watch a show without ever seeing an episode.
The decision not to broadcast The New Normal on KSL is probably based on LDS theology, but I can’t condemn the Church for that. What’s interesting here is that KSL is not preventing the broadcast of this program on another station. The Salt Lake area is the epicenter of the LDS world and I’d wager that KSL and/or the LDS could block this show from being broadcast if it/they chose to simply call for a boycott. The fact that’s not happening suggests to me that KSL and the LDS aren’t the bad guys some posters like to believe. I’ve lived in some smaller television markets where high minded station owners have refused to air programs much less controversial than The New Normal. The difference is that there was no other nearby station to broadcast the program. So, while KSL and its owner may come across as high minded, I conclude that they’re also being fair minded in terms of the rights of others to see this program.
I’m kind of surprised that KSL-TV didn’t pass on America’s Got Talent this season, as I’m sure the Mormon church would’ve wanted to distance itself from the king of raunchiness that is Howard Stern. But Stern has significantly cleaned up his act for AGT and I have a feeling if KSL had declined to clear that show this season because of Stern, it probably would’ve readded the show by now.