PTC Follows FCC’s Lead, Files Complaint on NBC’s Las Vegas

Indecency Barrage Continues as Parents Television Council Cites Scene from Feb. 15 Episode

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 2/22/2008 3:23:00 PM

Buoyed by the Federal Communications Commission's issuance of a forfeiture order against ABC stations over a nude scene it complained about in NYPD Blue, the Parents Television Council filed an indecency complaint against NBC stations over the Feb. 15 episode of Las Vegas and a scene featuring some naked women running around in the casino with "their buttocks … visible, and only shadows obscure their breasts and groins."

Las Vegas is a 10 p.m. show, but it airs at 9 p.m. in the Central and Mountain time zones, as did NYPD Blue.

In a statement announcing the move, PTC president Tim Winter, himself a former NBC executive, cited the FCC's recent NYPD Blue action

“Only less than one month ago, the FCC handed down $1.4 million in fines against 52 ABC affiliates for a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue that focused extensively on an actress’ naked buttocks, a side view of her bare breasts and a full frontal view of her nudity (obscured only by her arm and hand covering her breasts and groin)," he said, "but that didn’t deter NBC from airing barely obscured female nudity during a primetime airing of Las Vegas."

The FCC is expected soon to issue a forfeiture order against Fox for an episode of Married by America, and there could be others in the pipeline as it deals with a five-year statute of limitations on the government collecting civil penalties.