WGA STRIKE COVERAGE: PTC Complains About CBS’ Showtime Plan

Parents Television Council Lashes Out at Potential of ‘Super-Raunchy’ Weeds, Dexter and Brotherhood Airing on CBS

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 12/5/2007 5:30:00 PM

The Parents Television Council is not happy with CBS' plans to put some Showtime shows on the network during the Writers Guild of America strike.

Saying that potential shows could include Weeds, Dexter and Brotherhood, PTC president Tim Winter said CBS was funneling super-raunchy premium-cable content onto the CBS broadcast network.

Winter threatened to call for an advertiser boycott if CBS went through with the plan. The network had no comment at press time.

CBS just paid $300,000 to settle an indecency-related license challenge brought by a PTC member, and it is still in court over the Janet Jackson Super Bowl indecency finding generated by hundreds of thousands of complaints, the vast majority of which were from PTC members.

CBS president Leslie Moonves told Wall Street analysts Tuesday that the network planned to air some shows from sister premium-cable network Showtime, although he did not identify which ones.

"The prgoramming will be edited to comply with all network television broadcast standards" said CBS spokesmen Chris Ender. "In fact, Showtime already produces free TV versions of most, if not all, of its episodic programming ." He said the specific programs and a timetable have not yet been decided.

For full coverage of the strike, click here.