FOX Slapped with Fine for 2003 Reality Show

WASHINGTON, D.C./LOS
ANGELES, February 25: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has fined 13
FOX Television Network stations for broadcasting “indecent material” during an
episode of Married by America in
April 2003.

The FCC has slapped a
$7,000 fine on FOX stations in 13 markets where viewers complained—not on
all 169 owned-and-operated and affiliated stations. The FOX owned-and-operates
stations being fined are WJBK in Detroit, KMSP-TV in Minneapolis and WTTG in
Washington D.C. Affiliates slapped with the fine are WTVT in Tampa, WDAF-TV in
Kansas City, WFXR-TV in Roanoke, WSYM-TV in Lansing. KDSM-TV in Des Moines,
WLOV-TV in West Point, WHNS in Greenville, KCYU-LP in Yakima, WVAH-TV in
Charleston and WZTV in Nashville.

Married by America, which aired on FOX in the spring of 2003,
featured strangers who agreed to be engaged to and possibly marry each other.
The episode in question focused on Las Vegas bachelor and bachelorette parties
for two couples. According to the FCC, the episode “depicts the prolonged
appearance of strippers attempting to sexually arouse the party-goers.” The
regulator says it received several complaints following the broadcast and
subsequently launched an investigation. The FCC says the episode featured content
that was “sufficiently graphic and explicit to be indecent,” that “sexual
matter is plainly dwelled upon” and that “the material was pandering and
titillating.”

—By Mansha Daswani