One Million Moms Vs Fox Network

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FOX has plans in 2016 to air "Lucifer," a new series which will glorify Satan as a caring, likable person in human flesh. The series will focus on Lucifer portrayed as a good guy, "who is bored and unhappy as the Lord of Hell." He resigns his throne, abandons his kingdom and retires to Los Angeles, where he gets his kicks helping the LAPD punish criminals. At the same time, God's emissary, the angel Amenadiel, has been sent to Los Angeles to convince Lucifer to return to the underworld. Previews of the pilot episode depict graphic acts of violence, a nightclub featuring scantily-clad women and a demon. TAKE ACTION: Sign the petition to FOX Network, urging them to drop plans to air "Lucifer."

The trailer looks pretty good. And Satan is hot.

American Idol To End Next Season

Via the Associated Press:

The swan song of "American Idol" and heavy doses of comedy and sci-fi will mark Fox's 2015-16 season. The once-blockbuster singing contest, which launched the careers of Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Jennifer Hudson, has seen its audience dwindle and age. "Idol" will return next year for its 15th and final season with returning judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr., Fox said Monday. Ten new series will debut next season on Fox, including the comedy-horror series "Scream Queens" from "Glee" producer Ryan Murphy and with veteran scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis in the cast. The last chorus of "American Idol" will begin in January, with stalwart host Ryan Seacrest ushering the show to a (hopefully) graceful conclusion after a long and influential run that, at its peak, drew 30 million viewers.

American Idol was the top-rated show for eight consecutive seasons beginning with its launch in 2003. The show has produced dozens of chart hits, including #1 pop singles for Kelly Clarkson, Clay Aiken, Carrie Underwood, Taylor Hicks, and Fantasia.

TRIVIA: American Idol is produced by Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment, which takes its name from Paul Hardcastle's 1985 anti-war dance hit 19. Fuller was Hardcastle's manager at that time.

GLAAD: Fox TV Leads New Season With Most LGBT Regular Characters

GLAAD has issued its annual report of the diversity of major network television. An excerpt:

FOX once again leads the way in terms of LGBT characters in broadcast television with 6.5% of primetime broadcast scripted regulars being lesbian, gay or bisexual; a significant increase from an already impressive 5.4% last year. The network features 10 LGBT characters among its 154 series regulars. ABC, which was tied for first with FOX last year is now in second place; 4.5% of primetime regular characters on the network are LGBT, or 9 out of 201 characters. NBC is jumping from last to third place. After a low last year (when only 1% of its primetime regular characters were LGBT), NBC has made significant efforts to rectify the lack and now boasts 3.8% LGBT regular characters; that represents seven of its 183 series regulars. CBS remains in fourth place but continues to make significant progress. The network is seeing an increase in the percentage of LGBT characters and is now at 3.2%, compared to 1.9% at the beginning of the last season. Six of CBS’ 186 primetime series regulars are LGBT. Sadly, in what is a tremendous step backwards, The CW has no regular LGBT characters out of 89 series regulars, despite 3% of its regular primetime characters being LGBT at the beginning of the last season.

Read the extensive report.

Fox Teases Simpsons/Family Guy Episode

Via Mediaite:

At Comic-Con International in San Diego, Calif., Fox debuted a five-minute sneak peek of the combo episode of Family Guy and The Simpsons, set to air September 28. The preview shows leading males Homer Simpson and Peter Griffin bonding over donuts and fighting over their favorite beers, while Stewie Griffin and Bart Simpson engage in hijinks. Subtle jabs at each other’s shows abound, along with references to other Fox programs like Bob’s Burgers and the recently canceled Cleveland Show.

A Simpsons/Futurama crossover episode will air in November. The Simpsons is in its 25th season, making it the "longest running animated American series, longest running American sitcom, and longest running scripted primetime series."

LOUISIANA: Fox Station Apologizes For Cutting Out Evolution Segment Of Cosmos

It was totally by accident. Via Raw Story:

A New Orleans Fox affiliate blames a technical glitch that interrupted Sunday’s episode of “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.” WVUE-TV abruptly cut to a news promo, seat belt public service announcement, and commercials just as host Neil deGrasse Tyson was discussing how climate change millions of years ago influenced the primate-to-human evolutionary process. Commercials filled more than 5 minutes of airtime, interrupting 1 minute, 24 seconds of the program’s airtime, before “Cosmos” returned to a discussion on how the gravitational pull of other planets shaped Earth’s weather during the same period. WVUE’s vice president and general manager, Sandy Breland, described the glitch as “an automation error.”

An Oklahoma Fox station did something similar in March.

TRAILER: Gotham

"Before Catwoman, before Batman...there was Gotham."

Reality Show Pranks Women Into Thinking They Can Actually Marry Prince Harry

Fox TV Apology Of The Day

Deadspin has the apology:

While reporting breaking news about the crash of the KOMO-TV helicopter in Seattle, FOX31 Denver accidentally broadcast an offensive photo while scrolling live through a Twitter feed of pictures from the crash scene. The photo was mistakenly broadcast by our control room. It did not come from the tablet many viewers saw being used by one of our anchors. We apologize for the inadvertent broadcast of the image and we are taking immediate steps to prevent such an accident from happening again.

Bolding is mine because apparently viewers thought the anchor himself had been looking at the image, which was, in fact, a big ol' dick.

Headline Of The Day

Details.

Bill Donohue Is Very Upset About Cosmos

Last night Fox debuted its 13-episode series, Cosmos; A Spacetime Odyssey, which is hosted by noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and is produced by Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane.  Catholic League blowhard Bill Donohue is very upset about the first episode, which shamefully depicted the Spanish Inquisition as a bad thing. 

The propagandists involved in this show, represented most conspicuously by Seth MacFarlane, told viewers last night that “the Roman Catholic Church maintained a system of courts known as the Inquisition and its sole purpose was to investigate and torment anyone who dared voice views that differed from theirs. And it wasn’t long before [Giordano] Bruno fell into the clutches of the thought police.” The ignorance is appalling. “The Catholic Church as an institution had almost nothing to do with [the Inquisition],” writes Dayton historian Thomas Madden. “One of the most enduring myths of the Inquisition,” he says, “is that it was a tool of oppression imposed on unwilling Europeans by a power-hungry Church. Nothing could be more wrong.” Because the Inquisition brought order and justice where there was none, it actually “saved uncounted thousands of innocent (and even not-so-innocent) people who would otherwise have been roasted by secular lords or mob rule.” (His emphasis.)

All that torture and disemboweling? Good thing! Cardinal Fang, fetch the comfy chair for Bill.

Tweet Of The Day - Hillary Clinton

Scientifically Accurate Santa Claus

I wonder if the wingnuts will go after Fox for this.

One Million Moms Vs Glee

Via email from One Millions Moms:

Other religions do not tolerate this behavior and as Christians we will not either. Why any producer or network feels mocking a sacred and religious holiday where Christians celebrate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ is acceptable is beyond me. GLEE should not and will not get a free pass to make a joke of Christmas. This is not the first time the show has aired blasphemous content in their program. Glee producer Ryan Murphy is used to pushing the moral boundaries on his show, but last week's episode went too far. The mockery of the Christmas story was blasphemous and an abomination.

The show featured the transgender student, Unique, portraying the Virgin Mary in their high school's nativity scene and acts out giving birth to the baby Jesus. The doll representing Jesus wore a sequin diaper and was thrown from singer to singer while they sang "Love Child, Never Meant to be." Baby Jesus is tossed around like a rag doll and shown no respect.In another scene, a bisexual "Sexy Santa," gets two female characters and the show's gay male character drunk before robbing them blind - all this after making out with and tying the male character up in bed. These same females in a previous scene are elves at the local mall and tell kids to ask for mobile devices they could download porn on while wearing skimpy elf costumes.

The email ends with a demand that OMM followers contact all of Glee's advertisers and insist that they suspend all campaigns with the show, which airs on Fox.

One Million Moms Vs Family Guy

Via email:

Dear Joe, It is a violation of federal law for broadcasters to air indecent material on publicly-owned airwaves when children are likely to be in the viewing audience. Yet that is EXACTLY what the Fox Broadcast Network (not to be confused with Fox News) did this past Sunday, November 10th, with its most recent episode of Family Guy. The network brags to its advertisers that Family Guy is "#1 with Teens" and because it is a cartoon, the show is watched by tens of thousands of young children every week. What were children exposed to on Sunday's episode of Family Guy? Unbelievably vile sexual content - including "jokes" about child molestation, exploitation, rape and the sexualized use of food and perverse 'internal defrosting' of frozen hot dogs. Beyond the repugnant sexual content, the overall theme of the episode was that it is humorous for a boy to bully and beat up a girl.

The email concludes with a link to the FCC's complaint page.

TRAILER: Almost Human

RoboCop meets I, Robot.

Fox Threatens To Go Cable Only

In response to a court ruling that backs the makers of a device that allows subscribers to stream local television from the airwaves to their computers, Fox executives have threatened to stop broadcasting their signal over the air and go cable only.

A top executive with the owner of the Fox broadcast network on Monday threatened to convert the network to a pay-TV-only channel if Internet startup Aereo Inc. continues to "steal" Fox's over-the-air signal and sell it to consumers without paying for rights. Anyone with an antenna can pick up a TV station's signals for free. But cable and satellite companies typically pay stations and networks for the right to distribute their programming to subscribers. Industrywide, those retransmission fees add up to billions of dollars every year.

Aereo takes broadcast signals for free from the air with thousands of little antennas, recodes them for Internet use and feeds that to subscribers' computers, tablets and smartphones. Plans start at $8 a month, which is much cheaper than a cable package, though the service is mostly limited to broadcast channels. Last week, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York said that Aereo could continue its service despite a legal challenge by broadcast networks Fox, ABC, NBC and CBS.

Aereo, whose main backer is billionaire mogul Barry Diller, currently only offers its services in New York City but plans to expand nationwide. Consumers, some of whom now pay cable providers for hundreds of channels that they don't watch, could pair Aereo with Netflix for around $20 a month.

GLAAD Ranks Gay-Friendly Networks

Read the full report.

Fox Challenged For FCC Licenses

Citing News Corp's ongoing involvement in a hacking scandal, a public policy watchdog group has filed an FCC challenge against the renewing of broadcasting licenses for three Fox stations in the Washington DC area.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed a petition to deny Fox's applications to renew licenses for three of its TV stations - WTTG-TV and WDCA-TV in Washington, D.C., and WUTB-TV in Baltimore. "It is well-established that News Corp. has been involved in one of the biggest media scandals of all time," said CREW executive director Melanie Sloan. "Its reporters hacked voice mails and bribed public officials while top executives - including (News Corp. CEO) Rupert Murdoch - either approved the conduct or turned a blind eye."

News Corp. and Murdoch have apologized about the ethics scandal, which led to the closing of its tabloid News of the World and the departure of several senior executives. The company has been investigated by lawmakers there and blasted for the lack of ethics at some of its newspapers. Murdoch's son, James Murdoch, has been singled out for criticism because he had oversight of the British newspapers for several years.

Chaz Bono Debuts On DWTS

(Via - After Elton)

Fox Rejects "John 3-16" Super Bowl Ad

World Net Daily is upset because Fox has rejected a Super Bowl ad promoting the scripture John 3:16, which became famous for being seen at major sporting events thanks to Rollen "Rainbow Man" Stewart (seen above). They quote the ad's maker:

"The rainbow man, the guy we always used to see standing in end zones after field goal and extra point attempts holding up his John 3:16 sign – now there is a message of real hope. That message is a part of the culture of football. You see it all the time. You've seen it on the eyeblack, you've seen it on tattoos, you've seen it, as I've mentioned, the rainbow man and many others.

"In the midst of the commercials on everything that's trivial," Taunton says, "wouldn't it be wonderful if after this year's Super Bowl, in addition to talking about the game, people were talking, not about beer or potato chip commercials, they were talking about the gospel? Well, that's what we want to see happen." After a few months of working on the commercial and raising funds for its broadcast, however, Fox sent what Taunton calls "a carefully worded document" explaining the network "would not air anything with religious doctrine."

Not incidentally, Rainbow Man is now presenting his "message of real hope" from prison, where he is serving three consecutive life sentences for kidnapping.