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Conservative NBC affiliate KSL-TV in Utah will not carry the upcoming network drama series The Playboy Club, set at the first Playboy Club in Chicago in the 1960s. The station announced its decision on-air this morning (video below). “The Playboy brand is known internationally. Everyone is clear what it stands for. We want to be sure everyone is clear what the KSL brand stands for, which is completely inconsistent with the Playboy brand,” KSL President and CEO Mark Willes said in a statement. Willies also serves as president and CEO of KSL’s parent company, Deseret Media Companies, which has ties to the Mormon church. The same station previously refused to carry NBC’s racy comedy Coupling and the religious-themed animated comedy God, the Devil and Bob. KSL’s anchor who announced the nixing of The Playboy Club described the decision as being part of the station’s “long-term policy to screen programming for material which significant portions of our audience might find objectionable.” The station stopped short of labeling the content in Playboy Club they feel viewers might find objectionable but ran a guest commentary on the announcement by the chairman of the Utah Coalition Against Pornography. KSL said it is working with NBC to find another station in the market to carry the show, slated to air Mondays at 10 PM this fall. The Playboy Club already got in the crosshairs of conservative-leaning TV watchdog Parents Television Council, which criticized the series for asking its cast to sign nudity clauses.
Video Courtesy of KSL.com
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a bunch of mormon a-holes…
you’d thin\k they’d love this show considering playboy is as opposite as gay as you can get… and we know how these hating idiots feel about gays
Except for the whole subplot about …
Oh, that would be telling.
I know. It’s actually i think going to be one of the most interesting story lines, kind of brave too, at least in America.
Why is it that the first post is always the most culturally biased, ethnically charged, racist or religious slant? Dman, Why do you have to refer to them as mormon a-holes? They have the freedom to practice any religion they want just like you. Stick to the subject and call the decision makers “haters,” “stone-aged,” or “tunnel-visioned.” But, every Mormon does not think that way. I think you’re the $*&A$^% for posting the comment.
NAM: Agreed on practicing their religion.
They’re A-holes for this reason: While they can-and, as the article notes, HAVE previously not aired programming that doesn’t jive with their views-they’re not allowing the station’s VIEWERS to watch it and make up their own minds.
um, yeah, b/c that is the whole basis of the Mormon religion. So not making your mind up is really an important pillar.
That’s because it’s true in Utah. If you lived in Utah you would understand that church and law are not far apart, AT ALL. The laws here are based on Mormon beliefs, 99 percent of them. I always thought church and state were to be separate and that’s why America exists, but not in Utah.
Remind me to never move to Utah. Nice state and SLC is gorgeous, but I’d be afraid to live there.
The damn liquor laws are the bigger deterrent to residency than this, if you ask me.
Try living in Pennsylvania. Straight out of Prohibition.
True, but there’s always Jersey
Having lived in PA for way too long (a while ago, though) I gotta agree with you. Those State Stores? Yowza! Can’t buy individual beers except by going into a bar, no liquor/wine sales in supermarkets or stand-alone stores. Gotta use the State Stores. Prices fixed, brands fixed, no variety, nothing.
Place is annoying. And no going to Jersey, either. Not if you find yourself in the Western part.
An alcoholic wasteland.
Hmmm…. Do they also censor Law & Order SVU on their network?
Yes, they DO air L&O SVU. But they DON’T air Saturday Night Live (it airs on the CW affiliate here). It’s all a bunch of hypocritical nonsense.
Living in Utah is simultaneously awesome and frustrating.
Seeing how SVU is largely about people being punished severely for sexual deviancy, I’m sure the Elders fully endorse the franchise.
Well the Thought Police are alive and well in the land of magic underwear. I suppose that fits.
I think you meant “Tits Police.” Fixed that for you.
Why is this country so obsessed with fearing nudity, when we’re willing to show disgusting amounts of blood & violence without the blink of an eye? And why can Charlie Harper purchase prostitutes in a drunken stupor and America eats it up, yet the idea of a show taking place in the world of Playboy is cause for alarm? Silly country. Just sit down and shush.
Hey, guys, we’re okay with polygamy and inbreeding in the beautiful state of Utah, but keep your bunnies far away from us!
I can never remember whether the Grand Tetons are on Utah or Colorado.
Wyoming, actually. Unless you were trying to make a joke that didn’t pan out too well.
They are in Wyoming
Oh goody the moral Nazi’s can judge what is and isn’t appropriate for me to watch!
On KSL, I’m quite sure a character in a crime show could be shown being put on trial for cutting off someone’s breast… but it wouldn’t serve the Lord for their viewers to know someone might want to caress one.
“The Playboy brand is known internationally. Everyone is clear what it stands for.”
*innocently*
“The articles?”
If you live in Utah, just watch the Playboy Club on Hulu. Problem solved.
This show might actually do well, despite the abscence of KSL-TV
“My name is Jebediah Smith and neither me nor any of my seven wives will be subject to such blasphemy on TV.”
Mormons love sex!
The call letters need to be changed from KSL to KSLDS.
You know, if you close your eyes it actually goes away.
**closes eyes**
**opens eyes**
Nope, Mormons still here.
Well maybe a program about the shenanigans going on behind the scenes at the 700 Club can fill in. Or maybe a local sing-along.
Amazing how many bodies can pile up on a particular network and there’s not a peep from the crazies. But a little cleavage and damn, they’re beating their children and sleeping with the neighbor’s wife.
Yes, Mr. Willes, we all know what the KSL brand stands for. Prissy stupidity.
I thought it was the left that controlled the media !, but really, you’ve got (female) preachers dressing more riske than PB bunnies from the 1960′s. This isn’t Hustler and it’s hetero.
Why do I care? I don’t live in Salt Lake City (amymore) and don’t expect to in the future.
But I do intend to see “The Book of Mormon” again. Friggin’ hilarious!
Just wait until the national touring company of ‘The Book of Mormon’ tries to book a theater in Utah. Then you’ll see the far-reaching power of the church.
“Because I’m a Morman. And a Morman just believes!”
So good to see the Mormon hatred is alive and well from the oh so tolerant and much smarter Hollywood elite.
As opposed to KLS’s tolerance?
Mormons are backwater idiots boycotting a TV series that takes place in the 60′s which shows just how advanced these people’s sensibilities are. They hate everyone who isn’t white, straight, sees science as valid or doesn’t believe in their ridiculous version of a ridiculous 2,000 year old novel.
Next!
its called freedom to run your privately owned station the way you want. u dont like then watch PAID CABLE PORN.
astonishing…really.
It’s called controlling what people can and can’t watch. The viewers put the money in KSL’s pocket so why should the viewers be told what they can and can’t watch. This defeats the purpose of freedom.
Iive in UT and don’t agree with bashing the LDS religion but I do not agree with the censorship KSl is choosing what we can and can’t watch. This has gone on for way too long; going back to with holding episodes of Picket Fences they deemed inappropriate.
If you really think about it, your comment is quite dumb.
You know all those syndicated re-runs? How is that anything other than someone in charge of programming at a station choosing what its audience can and can’t watch?
What KSL is doing is just on the other end – they are choosing BEFORE it airs, rather than after the fact.
Like it or hate it, just change the channel, just change the channel – unless you’re an investor, a business partner, or some other important person to a station, they won’t care what you say or think, most times.
Sorry, but it’s their station, they can do what they want.
Actually, it’s their station, but they can’t do whatever they want to with it. They hold a license from the FCC and they are forced to meet certain requirements in order to periodically renew that license.
However, being forced to air every program that their network sends down the line isn’t one of those requirements. NBC could kick them out of the affiliate body, but KSL is probably too strong of an affiliate for them to do that–breach their contract, etc.–without a suitable replacement available.
Willes is being ridic about this. The Playboy Club isn’t really about skin. It’s about the Mob and police corruption in Chicago in the ’60s. Probably see more skin at the beach this weekend.
Then take it away from them.
That’s just dumb… That’s like saying it’s my car and I can do what I want with it and if I feel like running 20 people over it’s ok because it’s my car and I can do what I want with it. IDIOT!
Do the dumb bible-bashing morons at KSL understand that viewers have a remote and an off-switch?
Absolutely ludicrous.
May as well just air the latest hardcore pornography on the network too then, right? Since the viewer is still in control. Just maybe some people want to stop the networks from gradually descending into complete pornography with no standards whatsoever and want to stand up and exercise their rights not to air this stuff. Dissent is patriotic, after all.
I guess they don’t realize the Sundance Film festival is held there every year…
Idiots…
“We want to be sure everyone is clear what the KSL brand stands for”.
I think that is pretty clear. Your connection to the Mormon Church pretty much says it all.
It’s just sad…isn’t this what the Revolutionary war was about? Separating church from the state, or law. Freedom of religion doesn’t mean you are free to mix religion and law. It’s un-American!!!!