'American Idol' Adam Lambert's AMA act causes ABC to review live show practices
Go Adam Lambert!
You know you've "arrived" when you cause a TV network to star taking steps to change the way it does business.
That's exactly what Walt Disney-owned ABC is doing after Adam Lambert's much-talked about American Music Awards performance last week.
Disney/ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney told Reuters Monday, the network will review the steps it takes in preparing for live broadcasts of performers.
Sweeney said ABC will now look to get assurances from artists that stage shows will resemble rehearsals, and use contractual obligations to hold them to that.
"We certainly don't want to suppress artistry at any level, but we also have to be very cognizant of who our audience is," Sweeney said at the Reuters Media Summit on Monday.
The news comes on the heels of Lambert's controversial AMA performance which included him simulating oral sex with a backup dancer, kissing a guy and flipping off the audience. The performance was live for everyone but the West Coast. ABC edited the performance during the West Coast broadcast.The aftermath forced ABC to cancel Lambert's scheduled November 25 appearance on "Good Morning America" -- a step that Sweeney says was a proper move, noting that many children watch the morning news show.
"We really had to take the decision very seriously and found that his performance was very unpredictable at night and (we) didn't know what to expect in the morning," she said.
Do you think this is a good move and one that should be mimicked by other networks or is this an over reaction by a mainstream populace?
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I thought live events were already on a time delay to censor out any slips of the tongue (or in this case the finger). ABC really should've known better. I don't blame Lambert at all, he was just putting on a show that would get people talking. It was up to ABC to make sure it was network appropriate.
http://toointerestingfortwitter.blogspot.com
Ugh, seriously, ABC? Talk about an overreaction. Just when I thought this country couldn't get any more puritan.
Too bad ABC did not have the cajones. Are we going backwards?
Don't watch it if it offends you and who would have their kids up that late?
At which point Zap2it changes the meme away from the supposed double standards, whether vs. heterosexuals or domestic abusers, to what it was about all along: not doing what the performer promised and ad libbing very tastelessly, thereby making the network liable for financial penalty or viewer censure.
Nice to know that they got to the truth of the matter finally, even if it was only to prolong the story another day.
Excuse, while I laugh my a** off, but wasn't Elvis banned from the waist down on Ed Sullivan's show? Things haven't changed much in the last 50 years. Put it all into perspective: Adam Lambert is to 2010 what Elvis Presley was to 1956..and by the way, ditto on the voice! Yum, yum..
disgusting.
I think they have every right to not trust Lambert.
He practiced one performance, and then went live with a different performance.
Obviously, this violates trust with his employer, as it would with any other profession.
I'm glad the network is stating publicly that deceiving the show's audience is not to be tolerated.
Regardless of what happened.
Janet Jackson was fined $50,000 for doing a similar thing. Why isn't Lambert being fined?