The Connecticut school shooting rampage compelled Hollywood to air disclaimers before violent television shows, swap some programs for others, cancel film openings and present somber specials on daytime TV shows that are usually more focused on entertainment.
The responses came in addition to news specials on Friday’s killing of 27 people, most of them school children, in Newtown, Conn., by a gunman who later took his own life.
Showtime gave its viewers a special warning Sunday before the season finales of the thriller series “Homeland,” and “Dexter,” a series about a serial killer.
“In light of the tragedy that has occurred in Connecticut, the following program contains images that may be disturbing,” said the disclaimer before both programs.
Another cable network, HBO, postponed airings of the 2012 crime thriller “Contraband” over the weekend. The film with Mark Wahlberg and Kate Beckinsale was replaced by airings of “Crazy, Stupid Love” and the remake of “Arthur,” the network said.
The Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York canceled Monday’s screening of Tom Cruise’s violent new movie, “Jack Reacher,” that was to include a conversation with the actor. A scheduled premiere of the movie in Pittsburgh had also been postponed over the weekend.
In Los Angeles, the Weinstein Co. canceled Tuesday’s planned premiere of the violent movie “Django Unchained.”
The TLC network postponed a Dec. 27 special, “Best Funeral Ever,” about a colorful Dallas funeral home. The show, considered a pilot for a potential series, will instead air during the first week of January.
In one of the odder substitutions, NBC pulled a Blake Shelton holiday special at the last minute Friday and replaced it with one starring Michael Buble. That’s because the Shelton special had an animated segment about a reindeer killing, which NBC would be removed from any future showings of the special.
It’s a ritual for entertainment companies in the wake of national tragedies, noted Chris Ender, CBS entertainment spokesman: The network’s series and promos are all looked at carefully with an eye toward whether any of them could be considered insensitive with the news still fresh in mind. CBS has made no changes other than doing two prime-time news specials, he said.
Fox on Sunday night replaced new episodes of its animated comedies “Family Guy” and “American Dad” with repeats amid worries they could be seen the wrong way. The “American Dad” episode featured a demon who punished naughty children at Christmas.
Several daytime talk shows, including “Katie,” ”Dr. Oz,” ”Dr. Phil,” and “The Doctors,” responded with shows Monday that were dedicated to Friday’s shootings. That’s unusual for these shows, which are usually taped much further in advance.
Katie Couric’s show featured interviews with two families that had lost children in the shootings. In one interview, Couric asked the sobbing brother of one child killed, “Is there something you want people to know about your little brother?”
News reporters had been criticized in the immediate aftermath of the coverage for interviewing children who had been in the Newtown school during the shooting.
Both Couric and “Dr. Oz” featured interviews with spiritual leader Joel Osteen.
Talk show host Phil Graham, in addition to devoting his own program on the shooting, also appeared in Monday’s episode of “The Doctors.”
“Doctor’s orders: Hug your family a little bit tighter today,” said Travis Stork of “The Doctors.”
“The View” invited ABC News’ Chris Cuomo and forensic psychiatrist Michael Welner to talk about the incident. One of the show’s co-hosts, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, asked Welner with tears in her eyes, “How can this happen?”
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Associated Press writer Nicole Evatt contributed to this report.
Trump Names Brendan Carr To Lead The FCC
President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, as the new chairman of the agency tasked with regulating broadcasting, telecommunications and broadband.
Carr is a longtime member of the commission and served previously as the FCC's general counsel. He has been unanimously confirmed by the Senate three times and was nominated by both Trump and President Joe Biden to the commission.
The FCC is an independent agency that is overseen by Congress, but Trump has suggested he wanted to bring it under tighter White House control, in part to use the agency to punish TV networks that cover him in a way he doesn't like.
Carr has of late embraced Trump's ideas about social media and tech. Carr wrote a section devoted to the FCC in " Project 2025," a sweeping blueprint for gutting the federal workforce and dismantling federal agencies in a second Trump administration produced by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Trump has claimed he doesn't know anything about Project 2025, but many of its themes have aligned with his statements.
Carr said in a statement congratulating Trump on his win that he believed "the FCC will have an important role to play reining in Big Tech, ensuring that broadcasters operate in the public interest, and unleashing economic growth."
"Commissioner Carr is a warrior for Free Speech, and has fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans' Freedoms, and held back our Economy," Trump said in a statement on Sunday. "He will end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America's Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America."
The five-person commission has a 3-2 Democratic... Read More